CHAPTER ESSENTIALS

• The Internet—the vast central network of high-speed telephone lines designed to link and carry computer information worldwide—was initially modeled after the highway system. Begun in the late 1960s, the original Internet, ARPAnet, was created by the U.S. Defense Department’s Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) and used as a military-government communication tool. E-mail enabled military personnel and researchers to communicate with ease from separate locations (pp. 264–268).
• Innovations in the 1970s and 80s took the Internet from the development stage to the entrepreneurial stage as a growing community of researchers, computer programmers, amateur hackers, and commercial interests tapped into the Net. Microprocessors—miniature circuits that could process and store electronic signals—led to the introduction of the first personal computers (PCs); fiber-optic cable—thin glass bundles of fiber capable of transmitting thousands of messages at once—helped make the commercial use of computers even more viable (pp. 268–269).

• Though limited to text browsing (content-only) and e-mailing capabilities (Web 1.0), the Internet reached the masses for the first time in the 1980s with the creation of the World Wide Web—a free and open data-linking system for organizing and standardizing information on the Internet that is made accessible through HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the written code that connects Web pages and links, and Web browsers, software that helps users navigate the Web (p. 270).
• The rise of faster microprocessors, high-speed broadband networks, and the proliferation of digital content in the 2000s have pushed the Internet into a new phase (Web 2.0) whereby multimedia, interactive, user-generated functions and media convergence abound. People use the Web for instant messaging (IM), social networking, and writing and reading blogs and wikis.(pp. 270–272).
• Though some people claim we are currently in Web 3.0, many Internet visionaries say that in the coming age information databases will be layered and connected in ways that enable software agents to sift through and process data automatically for users (p. 273).

• Commercial entities on the Web strive to bring in money by selling advertising or services for fees. compete to provide consumers with Web access via broadband connections; browsers make it easy for users to navigate the Web; directories and search engines make money by providing users access (by acting as an all-purpose entry point or portal) to desired content, and then placing relevant ads with the content; e-mail companies offer a variety of services as a way to gain additional users, who are also targets of advertising (pp. 273, 276–279).
• Noncommercial entities on the Web do not make a profit from the Internet but still strive to innovate in their operations. Open-source software is shared freely and developed collectively on the Internet, while digital archiving aims to ensure that data is stored and preserved digitally so all people have access to it (pp. 279).

• Government surveillance, online fraud (such as phishing or sending phony e-mail messages that appear to be from official Web sites), questionable data gathering via e-commerce, cookies (information profiles that are collected and transferred between computer servers), and spyware have raised questions of information security on the Web and what should be considered private (pp. 280–281).
• At the same time, the issues of protecting people from online predators and figuring out what constitutes appropriate content on the Web, particularly regarding sexually explicit material, have sparked public concern (pp. 282).

• The Internet has made it easier for more people to voice opinions and become involved in a wide range of topics, but it has also revealed a digital divide regarding those who have access to information and those who do not. One way to bridge the gap is for cities and other municipalities to offer inexpensive Wi-Fi, or wireless Internet access, allowing users to connect wherever they are (pp. 282, 284).
• Questions over commercial ownership and mass customization, whereby individual consumers can tailor a Web page or other media form, have raised doubts about the true participatory nature of the Internet (pp. 284–285).