Amer Neely
Introduction
If information is power, plugging in to the Internet is like sticking your finger into a high-voltage power transformer while standing barefoot in a puddle of salt water.
How else could you get in touch with over 35 million individuals without calling long distance?
How else could you send the Encyclopedia Brittanica across the country in about 2 seconds?
This is not wishful thinking þ it is being done right now. In this article I will introduce you to that thing called the Internet. In following articles, I will show how you, as a non-profit organization, can use it to reduce your long distance phone bill, market your service, provide information about yourself, and stay in touch with other related organizations.
This is the first in a number of articles about how non-profit / charitable organizations can use the Internet. To begin, let's make sure everyone is starting at the same place and on the same square ...
History of the Internet
The Internet started out as a U.S. military experiment in the 1960's. At that time there was concern over what would happen if some event knocked out telecommunication links between major military computers. Engineers working under ARPA, which stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency, of the U.S. Department of Defense, designed a "network of networks" and called it ARPANET. At that time there were 4 computers hooked up. No one could have foreseen the eventual explosion in growth.
By the 1970's, rules and standards (protocols in computerese) were being developed for transferring data between the various types of computers. The links spanned the globe.
"The Internet" was recognized as the term used to describe this network of networks in the 1980's. It grew at a phenomenal rate, with universities, governments, and research companies coming on stream.
Now, it is still growing. Some statistics show that ...
A couple of years ago, there was even a one-way electronic mail link to astronauts in space!
Who owns it?
NOBODY! Yes, that's right at this time, the Internet is not controlled or owned by any one company or agency. It is a cooperative effort of all the networks involved. Each network owner is responsible for whatever data passes through their system, and everyone abides by a standard set of protocols. There is a voluntary group, called the Internet Society, which sets these standards, and promotes global information exchange through Internet technology.
By definition, the Internet is non-breakable, since it was designed to withstand nuclear attacks. Redundancy is built-in. Instead of only one way to get from A to B, there may be a dozen.
Imagine over 32,000 individuals, all over the world, working together to provide a global communications system. That's essentially what the Internet is. And they are not only dealing with daily traffic, but are constantly designing new ways to handle the explosive growth.
In the following articles I will be covering electronic mail, and the basic Internet tools, such as gopher, ftp, World Wide Web, and more. Stay tuned and bcnu...