Internet 101: Introduction
What is the Internet and why is it such a big deal?
What is the Internet?In essence, the Internet is an international network of computers all connected together. Once connected, you can browse through all the computer files on the Internet and add your own files. Unlike commercial services such as America Online, the Internet is not privately owned and there's no central control. The resulting system is either wonderfully free or dangerously anarchical, depending on your point of view.
The three most popular activities on the Internet are sending and receiving email, reading messages in newsgroups and browsing the world wide web.
Why the Internet?
The Internet today can potentially:
- reach millions of people cost effectively
- provide up-to-date information including publishing immediate calls-to-action
- provide cost-effective fund-raising and resource fulfillment service
- allow efficient communication among millions of geographically diverse people who do not know each other but who do share a common interest
The characteristics of electronic media are that "digital" real estate is inexpensive, when compared to the cost of paper, so there are fewer limitations on the amount of information that can be made available to individuals. Furthermore, people use their online services regularly, usually at least once per day, as these services are relied upon to deliver electronic mail, stock quotes and even entertainment content.
There are two primary forms of public electronic communication today: commercial online services and the Internet. Commercial services currently have almost 10 million subscribers in the U.S. and are experiencing explosive growth. For instance, America Online has nearly 5 million subscribers and is growing at the rate of over 200,000 new subscribers each month. It is estimated by Jupiter Communications that there will be nearly 35 million online subscribers in the U.S. by 1998.
In contrast to commercial services, The Internet is essentially open and anyone with the appropriate technology can either publish on or gain access to the "Net". Currently, approximately 25 million people are connected to the Internet around the world, and that number is estimated to be growing at 15% per month. At this time, access is opening up an enourmous rate and the "average" Internet user is beginning to become more of the general public as the interfaces to the Internet become ever simpler to use.
Cutting through the Internet Hype
In almost every newspaper and magazine today you can find at least one advertisement offering to "help you reach 40 million people on the Internet" by creating setting you up with a webpage. First, "people on the Internet" usually refers to people with email access, not world wide web (www) access. Only about 10-15 million people have access to the www. Still, that's a lot of people, but it's not 40 million. Second, just because all those people have access to the www doesn't mean they'll ever see or find the material you've posted. There are 200 million automobile drivers in the USA -- do you think a guy selling a billboard on a highway tells his customers 200 million will see their signs? He doesn't because people understand roads and billboards.
The Internet is still very new and lots of people are being mislead. The Internet can reach many people and will no doubt reach an ever growing number as time passes, but think in terms of thousands, not millions.
Index
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