The Internet
Week 2
Cyberspace- Definitions
People using the new
technology to communicate
with one another
Person to person
communication - that is
many-to-many
The use of computer
technology
Everyday Uses in
Cyberspace
1980’s
 Word Processing,
Document preparation
 Telecommuting,
Teleworking
 Children’s games,
Recreation
Everyday Uses of
Cyberspace
1990’s until Today








Children’s school work, Education
Adult Remote Education at home
Family/Friends Communications,
Correspondence
Reading News events, casual reading
Family Travel, Recreation
Family Records
Home Banking, Financial Management
Facebook, etc.
Everyday Uses of
Cyberspace
 In-store and other purchases
 ATM, Debit card
 Home Shopping
 TV, on-line services,
Smartphones
 Food Preparation
 multimedia, TV, On-line
services
Everyday Uses of
Cyberspace
 Future (almost here)
 Household Automated Tasks
Smart home
Smart appliances
Home robotics
Home information
systems
The Internet
Worldwide connection
 54,000,000,000
webpages
 1.9B users
TCP/IP
Internet History
1960’s - ARPA
 packet switching
1970’s - Universities
 LAN
 Email
 UNIX
 Newsgroups
Internet History
1980’s - MILnet, NSFnet
 DNS
 No longer only research
oriented (business)
TCP/IP
 reliable, efficient?,
robust
Internet History
1990’s until Today
 WWW born
 Commercialization
 Advertisements
 Ordinary people publish
 Smartphones
Reason for Success?
No central authority
Inexpensive
Capabilities are popular
Easy to use
Impacts of WWW
Opening of access to
information
Reduction of delay for
information
Evolution of hypertext
Metcalfe’s Law
The value of a network is
proportional to the square
of the number of its users
Original Uses
Remote Login
File Transfer
Research
The Basic Uses of the Net
E-mail
Discussion groups
File transfer
Long distance computing
Research
Data/Image Transfer
General Communications
E-Mail - Uses
Send messages
 Work
 Personal
 MIME capabilities
E-Mail - Advantages
No busy signal
Always an answer
Reader can view at any
time
Cost effective
Fast
Reliable
E-Mail - Advantages
Facilitates teleworking
Promotes communication
that would normally not
take place due to costs
E-Mail - Disadvantages
Have to be networked to
use it
Not 100% reliable
Who else is reading the
mail?
Discussion Groups - Uses
Share ideas
Education
Spread beliefs to others
Discussion Groups Disadvantages
Anonymity - Who is really
there with you?
Subject matter digresses
Truth of information
unconfirmed
Other Uses
Banking
Shopping
Telemedicine
Education
General source of
“information”
Personal Connections
Advantages
No need to get in a car
Saves $
Exposure to things not
available before
Reach more people
Disadvantages
 Privacy
 Secure transfers of
information
 Hackers
 Can’t use everywhere
 Children and censorship
 Illegal activity - piracy,
gambling