What is the Web?

The Internet

The Internet was originally developed by the United States Department of Defense in the 1960's, as (an experimental system of computers linked together to allow data exchanges). Since then, the Internet has grown to span the globe, with over 2 million (better word for host that involves the word "computers") linked together, each of which has one or more users. The modern Internet allows even people on different continents to exchange text, pictures, and sound almost instantaneously. This means that (N) million people can now communicate with each other quickly and reliably.

What do they communicate? Almost everything can be found on the Internet: the latest news, electronic magazines, classic novels, artwork, cartoons, stock reports, scientific papers, technical advice, discussion forums, new product announcements. And, of course, the Internet links business colleagues, associates and friends, so that for many people, electronic mail has replaced both the phone and the post office.

The Web

The World Wide Web is a project started at CERN in Switzerland in 1990. It has since grown explosively, and has attracted unusual attention in terms of its growth rate and popularity. The World Wide Web is the (first multimedia ??? for the Internet), allowing people to combine text, graphics, and sound to convey complex ideas in a user-friendly way. Moreover, because the World Wide Web can display information stored in many different formats, it allows users to retrieve data from Internet far more easily than ever before, without having to learn unintuitive protocols and computer commands.

Why you want to have a presence on the Internet

There has recently been much media commentary on the upcoming "Information Superhighway". The Internet, as the largest network of computers in the world, is already something of an "Information Superhighway." In a typical month, 10 Terabytes of data go over the NSF backbone, which carries information over the network between distant points. Ten terabytes is the equivalent of 100,000 encyclopedia sets.

More importantly, the amount of data is increasing every month, as more people send more information. The Internet is growing at an enormous rate. (How fast it's growing; analogy of "If you grew at this rate, you'd be 3 million feet tall by next month" sort of thing)

Though long the domain of computer programmers and college students, the rapid growth, size, and enormous potential of the Internet has begun to attract attention from the world at large. Ironically, even as the mass media has begun to trumpet the wonders of the Internet, more and more people are turning to it, rather than the traditional mass media, for news, entertainment, and information.

Thus, more than an Information "Superhighway," the Internet is fast becoming an Information "Nation," a place where people conduct business, do research, advertise, purchase, and communicate. All these activities are regularly done on the Internet already.

Do you want to be left behind?

Now is the time to become part of the Internet.