The words World Wide Web and Internet are so familiar to the new generation of computer users. On the WWW we can look up interesting topics, chat, buy plane tickets, check our stocks, manage our bank accounts, and even do our homework. In fact, it's such as useful tool that many wouldn't know how to get along without it, but what exactly is the Internet, and how did it come about?

What is the Internet? Well, as defined, the Internet is a computer-based worldwide information network (Rutkowski, 1997). Basically, large amounts of smaller interconnected networks called internets connect tens of thousands of computers, enabling them to share various information and resources. The creation has in effect, made it possible for people around the world to communicate efficiently without great expense. Through e-mail, IRC, and programs like ICQ, people around the world can talk to each other on a 24-hour basis, without long-distance phone bills.

Spanning the 1960's to the early 1990's, the Internet was used largely for military and academic purposes. However, in 1989, the introduction of the WWW, a set of programs, standards, and protocols governing the way multimedia is displayed transformed the Internet into what it is today.

From that point on, however, many large corporations and small businesses found that it could be used for much more than communicating and sharing information. After all, why stop there, why not use it for sails or advertisement? All of a sudden, a whole new way of doing business was spawned, one web page would be available to a vast number of potential customers; and best of all, there's very little overhead. How did it all start? In the 1960's, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense called the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) had many on-going projects involving researchers from the military, universities, and defense contractors all over the U.S. The problem was, they needed a way to link up their supercomputer sites to share information and ideas. To fulfill this need, in 1969 the concept of the Internet was born in ARPANET. The main concept of ARPANET that was so unique was that it was decentralized, and it had to be. The reason behind this was because of the threat of nuclear attack, in case certain routes got cut off, the information would automatically find it's own route to its destination. This essential concept has become the basis for the Internet today.

The Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate, and even the way we view life. As technology increases, the world shrinks, and there is no doubt that the Internet has made the world a bit smaller. With the constant application of new technology such as satellite connections and cable modems, the Internet will continue to grow dramatically and serve as a platform for business, research, and recreation.

Your own homepage

As stated in the text above, you can find links to many institutions on the Internet, here is a list of a few of them - related to communication (media etc.). Click here!!

Here you can find a table with links and descriptions of search tools. Click here!

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