INTERNET &WWW REPORT Impact on Business
INTRODUCTION 1
THE ORIGINS OF THE INTERNET 1
GROWTH OF THE INTERNET 2
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INTERNET AND WORLD WIDE WEB 3
ORIGINS OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB 4
GROWTH OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB 5
HAVE THESE TECHNOLOGIES BENEFITTED BUSINESS 6
CONCLUSION 8
REFERENCES 9
MANAGING INFORMATION 1 ESSAY
INTRODUCTION
The Internet and the World Wide Web will be discussed and analyzed. The following will be investigated in the essay:
> The origins of the Internet
> The growth of the Internet
> The relationship between the Internet and the World Wide Web
> The origins of the World Wide Web
> The growth of the World Wide Web
> And have these technologies benefited business
THE ORIGINS OF THE INTERNET
The Internet is the world's largest computer network, and consists of thousands of interconnected networks, all exchanging information freely. (Stair, 2001).
The Internet was established roughly a quarter-century ago to meet the needs of researchers working in the defense industry in the United States.
(Falk, 1994).
The Internet is the transport vehicle for information stored in files or documents on another computer. (www.lib.berkeley.edu).
Soon after computers became available in the late 1950s, there was a need to initiate and promote electronic communication. In the 1960s the U.S government realised the importance of enabling their research and development sites to electronically "talk" to one another. If computers at a number of installations were connected then files and data could be transferred a lot quicker through electronic links rather than by courier or mail service. (James, 1999).
The government funded Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) created Arpanet in 1969 to allow military and government computer installations performing research to communicate over phone lines. Arpanet started off with four computers networked together and this set up was destined to become the original model for the internet.
(James, 1999).
The Arpanet expanded to include sites outside of the government and the military; educational and corporate entities also realised the benefits of being able to pool computer resources and share information.
(James, 1999).
The internet was originally designed to allow people to have access to resources on the computer that would not be available to them at their own private and work facilities, it was also designed to transfer information between computers. (James, 1999).
Initially the primary users of the Internet were researchers, scientists and engineers, but today the Internet has information which can be in any type of format such as text to digitized video. (James, 1999).
GROWTH OF THE INTERNET
The number of people using the Internet is increasing rapidly at 10 percent per month. The business and commercial component is the largest and fastest growing segment of the Internet. (Swadley, 1995).
The Internet initially started off at a slow rate but across time it has grown at an increasing rate and includes more than 45,000 connected networks in more than 200 nations. The statistics of Internet are always an estimate as the numbers charge so frequently. (Swadley, 1995).
There are approximately 50-100 million people who have some kind of internet connectivity, the Internet includes individuals, groups, organisations, schools, universities, commercial services, companies and the government. (Swadley, 1995).
The growth of the Internet is continuing on a daily basis and will continue to do so as the internet is not running up against any major physical or technical constraints. The Internet is able to tolerate interaction of systems of dramatically different capabilities, on a daily basis, people with a high speed T1 connections to the Internet interact successfully with those using 2,400 baud dial-in accounts. (Swadley, ...
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There are approximately 50-100 million people who have some kind of internet connectivity, the Internet includes individuals, groups, organisations, schools, universities, commercial services, companies and the government. (Swadley, 1995).
The growth of the Internet is continuing on a daily basis and will continue to do so as the internet is not running up against any major physical or technical constraints. The Internet is able to tolerate interaction of systems of dramatically different capabilities, on a daily basis, people with a high speed T1 connections to the Internet interact successfully with those using 2,400 baud dial-in accounts. (Swadley, 1995).
Another reason for the growth of the Internet is the recent development of easy-to-use, graphically oriented "point-and-click" software for the internet. (Swadley, 1995).
The Internet is the main cause of recent explosion of activity in optical fibre telecommunications. The high growths observed on the Internet and the popular perception that growth rates were even higher, led to an upsurge research, development and investment in telecommunications. (www.dtc.umn.edu)
Internet traffic (as measured in bytes by customers) is doubling each year and by 2000 the internet traffic was starting to double every 3 to 4 months and this was becoming hard to accept. (www.dtc.umn.edu).
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INTERNET AND WORLD WIDE WEB
The basis for the World Wide Web is the Internet. The World Wide Web is built on the Internet and makes use of the mechanisms the Internet provides. (www.cio.com)
The Internet is the physical aspect, computers, networks, services, it allows to connect to thousands of other computers across the world. (www.cio.com)
The World Wide Web is an abstraction and common set of services on top of the Internet, it is the set of protocols and tools that let us share information with each other. (www.cio.com).
The Internet and the World Wide Web are both global communications networks that allows people to exchange information computer-to computer. Its like an epic novel and the movie version of the same story, there is a relationship between the two but in different ways. (www.cnn.com). The Internet is like a novel, big and sweeping in scope but it demands a lot of time and effort, there are no pictures, sounds to help digest the vast of information which is presented, whereas the World Wide Web, like a movie is grand in scale but not as comprehensive as its textual counterpart. (www.cnn.com).
The World Wide Web is an abstract (imaginary) space of information, and on the Internet you find computers and on the World Wide Web you find documents, videos and information, the internet is connected with cables between computers and the connections for the World Wide Web is the hypertext links.
The World Wide Web only exists because of the programs which communicate between computers on the net. The World Wide Web could not be without the Internet. The relationship between the World Wide Web and the Internet is important as the World Wide Web made the internet useful because people are interested in information, knowledge and wisdom and don't have to know about computers and cables to get that information. (www.w3.org).
The World Wide Web is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet, its and information sharing model that is built on top of the Internet. The World Wide Web uses protocol, one of the languages spoken over the internet to transmit data. World Wide Web services allows applications to communicate in order to exchange business logic and to share information. (www.webopedia.com).
The World Wide Web also utilises browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape to access web documents which are called Web pages, they are linked via hyperlinks. (www.webopedia.com).
ORIGINS OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The World Wide Web started at Switzerland in the 1980s, a British computer scientist was working at a Swiss physics laboratory when he got fed up with his daily planner which was computerised as the phone numbers which he stored and the documents he had wrote were both stored on separate databases and there was no way that he could connect them both together. So he decided to do something about it, he created a hypertext computer program that allowed him to make the connections.
He then decided to expand on his idea and developed a program that could link databases from all over the world and he called it the "World Wide Web".
He distributed the software in 1991 and other computer whizzes immediately started to build on it, and then students from Illinois came up with a program called Mosaic, that was the first web browser, a tool that turned scientist Burners-Lees textual world into a graphical point-and-click wonderland. (www.cnn.com).
The basic idea of the World Wide Web was to merge the technologies of personal computer, computer networking and hypertext in to a powerful and easy to use global information system. Hypertext is the text with links to further information. (www.public.web.cern.com).
GROWTH OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The World Wide Web is a way of exchanging information between computers on the Internet, tying them together into a vast collection of interactive multimedia resources. You can also use the World Wide Web to provide information to other people around the world. (www.kb.iu.edu)
The World Wide Web has grown to a collection of tens of thousands of independently owned computers that work together as one in an Internet service. (Stairs, 2001).
These computers are called Web servers and are all over the world and they contain every imaginable type of data. (Stairs, 2001).
The high speed of Internet circuits connects to Web servers and cross-indexing software, which allows users to go from one Web computer to another - creating the illusion of using one big computer. (Stairs, 2001).
Because the World Wide Web has the ability to handle multimedia objects including linking multimedia objects distributed on Web servers all over the world, the World Wide Web is becoming the most popular means of information access on the Internet today. (Stairs, 2001).
World Wide Web is the fastest growing place for doing business on the Internet as it provides a multimedia approach to information that emulates many of the features of advertising in traditional media. (Swadley, 1995).
The World Wide Web is used in many creative ways, the World Wide Web is used by companies all over the world for many reasons such as:
> For external communication
> To share product information
> To learn about the market place
> To share in process work with business partners
> For internal sharing of information
(www.cio.com).
HAVE THESE TECHNOLOGIES BENEFITTED BUSINESS
Most businesses now use the Internet more than any other group of network users. (Swadley, 1995). Businesses feel that the Internet can serve a large variety of their needs including marketing, customers and vendor support. Businesses can also develop new products, take orders, receive electronic publications and documents. (Swadley, 1995).
The following is how businesses have benefited by using the Internet:
> Global communication - there are a variety of global communication methods that are available to businesses but the unique advantage of digital networked communications is an important method to consider as it is a global network and offers businesses the opportunity for rapid communications with people and organisations across the globe, enlarging the visibility of a business. (Swadley, 1995).
> Corporate logistics - as the Internet is an anywhere-anytime network, employees, suppliers and customers can keep in touch more efficiently. Businesses can communicate by asynchronous methods, where both parties can exchange mail and information across time and distance freely. By using this method you do not have to be aware of time zone differences, using the Internet reduces logistical concerns as employees do not have to be in the same room or city for meetings. (Swadley, 1995).
> Competitive advantage - businesses want the ability to have the latest information about their market place as it allows for them to keep at their competitive edge. Learning what other businesses are doing, knowing the kinds of information available and discovering new markets can assist a company in maintaining a competitive advantage. Businesses enhance these efforts by being connected to and active on the Internet. (Swadley, 1995).
> You do not have to wait until there are resources available to conduct business, the internet is operational at all times makes it the most efficient business machine to date. (www.invir.com).
> Can obtain customer feedback and can also respond back immediately. (www.invir.com).
The World Wide Web has benefited businesses in many ways. Most businesses have now discovered the benefits of using the World Wide Web and have successfully addressed corporate objectives by integrating the World Wide Web as part of their business strategy. (www.1st-tech.com).
The World Wide Web generates awareness and provides a world wide store front for businesses while automating many business procedures 24 hours a day. (www.1st-tech.com).
The World Wide Web has benefited business in many ways:
> Can advertise various products, before customers purchase a product they can look up various product specification sheets and find out additional information about products before they actually buy it. (www.invir.com).
> Can distribute product catalogues. (www.invir.com).
> When information is added to the World Wide Web it's immediately available for browsing by millions of users.
CONCLUSION
As it has been investigated the Internet is the Worlds largest computer network, consists of thousands of interconnected networks and all exchange information. The growth of the Internet is increasing rapidly and there are over 45,000 networks connected in over 200 nations, the growth of the Internet is hard to measure as the numbers are always changing at an increasing speed. The relationships between the Internet and World Wide Web are that they are both global communications networks that allow people to exchange information. The relationship between the two is very important as the Web made the Internet useful as it contains information which people are interested in.
The World Wide Web was established in 1980 by a scientist who came up with the idea to merge together technologies, computer networking and hypertext into being able to use global information from all over the world and he came up with the World Wide Web.
The World Wide Web and the Internet have benefited businesses as it allows businesses to meet customer and supplier demands, it helps develop new products into the market industry and businesses are able to communicate with suppliers all over the world and it can help businesses to run effectively and efficiently if they are able to meet the needs of their customers and suppliers.
REFERENCES
BOOKS
Falk, Bennett., (1994), The Internet Roadmap. Sybex Inc.
James, Scott D., (1999), Introduction to the Internet, 2nd edition. Prentice Hall.
Reynolds, George M. Stairs, Ralph M., (2001), Principles of Information Systems, 5th edition. Thomson Course Technology.
Swadley, Richard K. (1995), The Internet Unleashed, 2nd edition. Sams.net.
INTERNET SITES
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/WhatIs.html
[16 November 2006]
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/help/basic/web.html
[14 November 2006]
http://www.kb.iu.edu/data/acqj.html
[14 November 2006]
http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/doc/oft.internetgrowth.pdf
[20 November 2006]
http://www.cio.com/WebMaster/sem2_Internet.html
[20 November 2006)
http://www.w3.org/people/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html
[22 November 2006]
http://public.web.cern.com/ch/public/content/chapters/aboutCERN/Achievements/World Wide Web/www-en.html
[22 November 2006]
http://www.1st -tech.com/services/advantages.html
[15 November 2006]
http://www.invir.com/int-bus-advantages.html
[16 November 2006]
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/internet/2002/web-vs-internet.asp
[20 November 2006]
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