Sometime in the mid 1960's, during the Cold War, it became apparent
that there was a need for a bombproof communications system. A concept
was devised to link computers together throughout the country. With
such a system in place large sections of the country could be nuked
& messages could still get through.
In the
beginning, only government "think tanks" and a few universities
were linked. Basically the Internet was an emergency military communications
system operated by the USA Department of Defense's Advanced Research
Project Agency (ARPA). The whole operation
was referred to as ARPANET.
In time,
ARPANET computers were installed at every university in the US that
had defense related funding. Gradually, the Internet had gone from
a military pipeline to a communications tool for scientists. As
more scholars came online, the administration of the system transferred
from ARPA to the National Science Foundation.
Years later,
businesses began using the Internet and the administrative responsibilities
were once again transferred.
At this
time no one party "operates" the Internet, there are several entities
that "oversee" the system and the protocols that are involved.
The speed
of the Internet has changed the way people receive information.
It combines the immediacy of broadcast with the in-depth coverage
of newspapers ... making it a perfect source for news and weather
information.
Internet
usage is at an all time high. Over 100 million adults are now going
online every month, according to New York-based Mediamark Research.
That's half of American adults and a 27 percent increase over 1999
in the number who surf the Web. There also appears to be a continuing
gender shift in the number of adults going online. In early 2000,
Mediamark reported the milestone that women for the first time ever
accounted for half of the online adult population. Now 51 percent
of surfers - some 50.6 million - are women.
There are
several ways to access the Internet. Learn about the options that are available to you.
Want to
know more? Click here to find out how
information moves through the Internet.
