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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
CHAPTER 7
THE INTERNET
AND INTRANETS
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
Learning Objectives
 Describe what the Internet is, how it works, and how
users connect to it
 Describe the capabilities that the Internet offers to users
 Describe the World Wide Web and differentiate it from
the Internet
 Identify and describe the tools that allow users to view
and search the Web
 Identify and briefly describe the management
challenges caused by the Internet
 Define the term intranet and discuss how intranets are
used by business
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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Chapter Overview
The Evolution of the
Internet
• The Internet today
• The infrastructure
•Internet2
The World Wide Web
•Browsers
•Offline Browsers
•Search Engines
•Push Technology
•Information Filters
•Clipping Services
•Personalized Web
Services
•Collaborative Filtering
•Web Authoring
The Operation of
the Internet
•Addresses on the
Internet
•Accessing the Internet
Services Provided by the
Internet
•Communications Services
•Information Retrieval Services
Internet Challenges
•New Technologies
•Internet Regulation
•Internet Expansion
•Internet Privacy
Intranets
•Teamware
•Security
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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Case : Schwab’s New
Internet Business Model
 The Business Problem
 give top-notch advice and service but not to push
products or recommend which stocks to buy; keen
competition from both deep-discount Internet brokers
and full-service investment firms
The Solution
 coach people on investing through the Internet
 allow customers access to their own Web pages and initial
public offerings; online interviews with top executives
The Results
 the more they go online for routine business, the less the
staff needs at Schwab’s service centers and branches
 earns its highest ratings on “customer confidence,” but not
initially rated well in “ease-to-use”
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
Case (continued…)
What have we learned from this case??
 Internet strategy is no longer just a source
of competitive advantage; it is necessary
for survival
 An innovative use of the Internet can bring
competitive advantage but it may not be sustainable
 The Internet in its various incarnations is a powerful
medium whose understanding is essential for the
modern business competitor
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
What is the Internet?
The Largest computer network in the world
(a network of networks)
Exchanges information seamlessly by using
the same open, non-proprietary standards and
protocols, within interconnected networks
Forms a massive electronic communications
network
Provides a true democratic communications
forum and has produced a democratization of
information
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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The Evolution of the Internet
1969
ARPANET
Late 1970s
USENET (User’s Network)
Early 1980s
Computer Science network
(CSNET) and BITNET
1986
NSFNET
Today
Internet
Tomorrow
Internet 2; ???
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
The Internet Today
The Internet is international, with users on all
continents
The cost of personal computers and Internet
connections are prohibitively high for most of
the population
Political, cultural, and regulatory barriers
have slowed the rate of Internet adoption
The vast majority of sites are in English
The vast majority of content is generated in
the United States
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
The Infrastructure of the Internet
Commercial communications companies now
largely provide the physical network backbone of
the Internet
The U.S. government continues to contribute
some funds to essential administrative processes
The National Science Foundation (NSF), in the
USA, pays for certain high-performance portions
of the network backbone
The Internet infrastructure is supplied by network
service provider
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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Internet2
In 1996 a consortium of universities
began establishing a faster network,
Internet2, with limited access devoted
exclusively to research purposes
Internet2 grew from 34 to more than 110
U.S. research universities in one year
Internet2 is capable of transmitting
gigabits of information per second
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
The Operation of the Internet
Addresses on the Internet
 IP address - uniquely identifies one from the
other computers
 Domain name system (DNS) - derives the
names of the computers
 Domain name - consists of multiple parts,
separated by dots, and are translated from
right to left; upper names are most important
(the dot com; wiley.com)
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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The Operation of the Internet
(continued …)
Accessing the Internet
 Connect via LAN Server
 Connect via Serial Line Internet
Protocol/Point Protocol (SLIP/PPP)
 Connect via an Online Service
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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Services Provided by the Internet
Communication Services
Electronic Mail (e-mail)
USENET Newsgroups (Forums)
LISTSERV
Telnet
Streaming Audio and Video
Internet Fax
Chatting
Internet Telephony
Real-Time Audio and Video
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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Services Provided by the Internet
(continued …)
Information Retrieval Services
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Gophers
Archie
Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS)
Veronica (Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Netwide
Index to Computer Archives)
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
The World Wide Web
The Internet - functions as the transport mechanism
The World Wide Web - an application that uses the
Internet transport functions, a system with universally
accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and
displaying information via a client/server architecture
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) - standard
hypertext language used in Web
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) text-based language for describing the content and structure
of digital documents
Hyperlinks - from one Web page to another
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
The World Wide Web (continued …)
Home Page - a text and graphical screen display;
first, introductory page in a web site
Web Site - all the pages of a company or individual
Webmaster - the person in charge of a Web site
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - points to the
address of a specific resource on the Web
Hypertext transport Protocol (HTTP) communications standard used to transfer pages
across the WWW portion of the Internet
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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The World Wide Web (continued …)
Browser (software application that is used to access and navigate
the Web)
 Netscape Communicator
 a multipurpose suite that handles news, e-mail, audio- and
video conferencing, and more
 Microsoft Internet Explorer
 Internet Explorer’s tight integration with Windows offers
users the advantage of “one-stop computing”
Offline Browser
 enables a user to retrieve pages automatically from
Web sites at predetermined times, often during the
night
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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The World Wide Web (continued …)
Search Engines
 programs that return a list of Web sites or
pages that match some user-selected criteria
 ways to select pages for inclusion in the
database : Web Crawlers and Registration
 metasearch engines
 automatically enter search queries into a number
of other search engines and return the results
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
The World Wide Web (continued …)
Push Technology automatically supplies
desirable information to users by means of a
process running on either the user’s desktop or a
network server
 provides timely, prioritized distribution of
information over a corporate network in the
workplace
 enhances traditional Web advertising in the
consumer market
 used for software delivery and updates
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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The World Wide Web (continued …)
 Information Filters
 automated methods of sorting relevant from irrelevant
information
 Clipping Services
 track news topics and retrieve articles from database of
publications
 personalized Web Services
 offer the ability to generate Web content that is
personalized for individual Web site visitors
 Collaborative Filtering
 a form of personalization services exemplified by
Personalogic
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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The World Wide Web (continued …)
Web Authoring (for page and site design)
 Standard HTML is the common denominator
 CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format
(GIF) and Joint Photographic Experts Group
(JPEG) is the common format of graphics files
 Enhancements to HTML





cascading style sheets (CSSs)
Dynamic HTML (DHYML)
Extensible markup language (XML)
Voice markup language (VoxML)
Virtual reality modeling language (VRML)
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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Internet Challenges
 New Technologies
 Vendors are adopting new technologies more
rapidly than many users and customers can
implement them
 Internet Regulation
 Some technical organizations are not formally
charged in any legal or operational sense with
responsibility for the Internet
 Internet Expansion
 The massive growth of Internet traffic has strained
some elements of the network
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
Internet Challenges (continued …)
 Internet Privacy (Web sites collect information with
and without consumers’ knowledge)
 Cookie - small data file placed on users’ hard drives
when they first visit a site
 three potential bills are in USA Congress
 the government should let groups develop voluntary
privacy standards but not take any action now unless
real problems arise
 the government should recommend privacy standards
for the Internet but not pass laws at this time
 the government should pass laws now for how personal
information can be collected and used on the Internet
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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Intranets
A private network that uses Internet
software and TCP/IP protocols
Teamware (intranet software)
 used for team building, sharing ideas and
documents, brainstorming, scheduling, and
archiving decision to facilitate productivity
Security
 public key security, encryption, digital
certificates, firewall and assured pipelines
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
Examples of Intranet
NationsBank’s Intranet improves relations with
big business customers
 sales associates can get a global customer overview
Philips Electronics cuts delivery time
 the intranet and the CAD eliminated the mislabelling
of products, inaccurate manufacturing fulfilment, and
correct areas of customer dissatisfaction
How BD manages knowledge
 anyone at the company can find an in-house expert on
the firm’s core competencies
Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
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What’s in IT for Me?
For Accounting
 Accounting personnel use corporate intranets to
consolidate transaction data to provide an overall
view of internal projects
 Internet keeps accounting personnel informed on
legal and other changes affecting their profession
For Finance
 Corporate intranets can provide a risk-evaluation
model so that financial analysts can evaluate the
risk of a project or an investment
 The Web can be a marketing and service
provision channel
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
What’s in IT for Me? (continued …)
 For Marketing
 Marketing managers use corporate intranets to
coordinate the activities of the sales force
 The Internet opens a completely new marketing
channel
For Production/Operations Management
 Intranet provides three-dimensional models and
animation to speed product development
 The Internet is a great source of cutting-edge
information for POM pros.
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Introduction to Information Technology
Turban, Rainer and Potter
Chapter 7The Internet and Intranet
What’s in IT for Me? (continued …)
 For Human Resource Management
 On intranets, you publish corporate policy
manuals, job postings, company telephone
directories, and you conduct training classes
 Companies deliver online training obtained
from the Internet to employees through their
intranets
 the Internet supports worldwide recruiting
efforts