What is Internet

The Internet is an international network connecting approximately 36,000 smaller networks that link computers commercial institutions and businesses using a communications protocol called Terminal Control Program / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).  This network was created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. armed services in the 1960s.  Initially, it was called ARPANET, and it connected major computing centers at military, university, and research institutions.  Over time, more and more organizations joined the network, and it became desirable for non research, commercially oriented organizations to join as well.  In 1984, the military split its organizations off from ARPANET to form MILNET.  ARPANET continued to grow in popularity with universities, research, and commercial organizations.  Today it is referred to as the Internet. *

There are about 30 million Internet users and the number is increasing exponentially.  The reason the Internet is getting more popular is its powerfulness and practicality.  A number of standard services are provided on the Internet.  Any Internet user has access to Internet mail services for E-mail.  Services for public newsgroups are provided by NetNews, an Internet facility that allows users with common interests to conduct public discussions with one another.  Other services include TelNet, which allows an Internet user to sign on to a remote computer, and FTP, which allows users to send or retrieve files from remote computers. **

Electronic Commerce:

The term electronic commerce emerged only several years ago when business people started to understand the powerful tool of the Internet.  The basic idea of electronic commerce is to let business people conduct business transactions over the Internet.  For example, a corporate buyer can browse the Internet, look at the merchandise on the Internet and place an order.  This transaction can be completed by sending a company's purchase order number to the vendor and receiving a confirmation number.  The advantage of electronic commerce is that business transactions can be very efficient and fast through the Internet.  Entrepreneurs can use the Internet as the market place rather than huge retail channels.  However, there are some other issues needed to be researched such as how to police the transactions over the network, how to certify the accuracy of each transaction, and how to prevent any transaction fraud.

Internet development tools:

To design an Internet application, proper tools are required.  HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is designed to implement home page design.  This language requires certain programming training and many people may not like to learn a new language.  Recently, more Internet development tools have been developed.  Microsoft FrontPage is a tool, which provide users with a graphical user interface (GUI) and a word processing type of user friendliness.  Netscape Navigator 3.0 also provides an Internet development tool.  In addition, JAVA by Sun Microcomputers provides sophisticated functions for Internet application development.

Information Superhighway:

The term information superhighway has roared into the business world's consciousness in recent years. It is, in fact, a vision or a metaphor for a fusion of the two-way wired and wireless capabilities of telephone and networked computers with cable TV’s capability to transit hundreds of programs, images, multimedia and other information in any other format. This information superhighway, after its completion, will link all business as around the globe.  Today, this information superhighway remains a vision, much like today’s interstate highway system was a vision in the 1950s.  However, it is believed that in next 15 to 20 years, most of the country will be linked by the information superhighway.
 
 */**: sources: David M. Kroenke, Database Processing-Fundamentals, Deign, and Implementation, A simon & Schuster Company, N.J., 1998