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Executive Summary

The Internet was originally a government-funded network with restricted access. The use of the Internet was initially for scientific and academic research. As the Internet began to make the transition to commercial status, it also became a vehicle for business research. Since then the Internet has undergone an evolution. It now provides access to literally thousands of information sources on topics ranging from entertainment and education to government regulations.

Recent applications and technological innovations such as the creation of the world Wide Web, have made the Internet fully accessible to non-technical individuals, and have unleashed an immense opportunity for its growth. The key to this growth has been the absence of a governing body or entity to regulate Internet's growth.

With new customers connecting their local area and wide area networks to the Internet, and service providers continually increasing the number of networks to which they have direct connections, the Internet is currently undergoing a phase of exponential connectivity growth. This expanding user base is bringing with it new concerns for information security and social issues but more excitingly it is introducing applications that will increasingly make the Internet an essential business and personal communications tool.

Introduction

The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The innovation of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration of capabilities. The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for geographic location (Rutkowski, 1993-1995).

The Internet represents one of the most successful examples of the benefits of sustained investment and commitment to research and development of information infrastructure. Beginning with the early research in packet switching, the government, industry and academia have been partners in evolving and deploying this exciting new technology (Carrol, 1997). Today terms like, ahsanupal@hotmail.com, and http;www.EvolutionOfTheInternet.com are no strangers to a random person on the street.

Analysis

History
What is known today as the Internet had its roots in the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the late 1960s. The project was begun in response to the Cold War. Realizing the importance of communications networks that could survive a nuclear attack. The technology of that era limited computers to sending messages in one direction only. If something were to happen to one computer, the entire route would be disabled. DARPA envisioned a system more like a highway, where information "packets" could also be sent over several lanes, to several destinations at once, and automatically routed around the malfunctioning computers (Ribas, 1996). Thus, communications could be maintained, even if one or more locations were knocked out. This new network became known as ARPANET and more than 10,000 people had access to the different services such as remote access on other computers, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and electronic mail.

While the U.S. Department of Defense was trying to develop secure communications in the event of nuclear attack, a funny thing happened. The Cold War began to recede and the nuclear threat began to subside. Because of this, like other items in the military budget, development of the ARPANET was becoming harder to justify. At the same time something else was beginning to happen. Many of the super computers being used to develop ARPANET were at large universities. ARPANET researchers started using this network to send messages to colleagues. These electronic messaging were being sent between computers, throughout the country, eventually all over the world. This practice, and related ones, became known as internetworking (later, just, internet) and it took on a life of its own (Ribas, 1996). Before long, thousands of universities, government agencies and even business began to connect their computers to this worldwide net. By mid 1980's the modern Internet was beginning to take shape.

The Internet
With the dawn of the 1980's, the Internet's transformation from government defense project to global information network was in full swing. Various parts of the Internet were growing rapidly. Electronics mail (later simply email) gained immense popularity. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) could be used to download all sorts of useful software programs from the Internet. By way of the Usenet, thousands of news and discussion groups could be found. But in spite of all this the explosive growth of the Internet would not come until the development of the World Wide Web (WWW).

World Wide Web
The web is a network of multimedia sites that are used by organizations and individuals to publish information. Each of these sites has an address (technical name URL for Uniform Resource Location). Once you know the address, you can visit just about any Internet site you like. The type of organization that the site represents can usually be hinted by the last few letters of the address. Private companies usually have addresses ending in .corn extension, such as www.sasktel.com, whereas address for the Canadian Government Departments usually include the extension .gc.ca, such as www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca.

With the availability of web browsers like Netscape, or Internet Explorer, the WWW allows very simple access to various media like text, graphics, video, sounds and animation (Java) for nearly everyone who has the access to a computer with a modem.

Growth of the World Wide Web
Only quarter of a century after its birth, Internet has transformed into a public resource, accessible by ordinary people around the globe. As more and more individuals and business appreciate the potential of the Internet for research, efficiency gains and commerce, the fabric of the Internet constantly expands (Hughes, 1997). In 1993, the World Wide Web grew at an unprecedented rate of 341, 634%. It is currently estimated that there are at least 9.5 million host computers and networks linked to the Internet, a 95% increase over 1995. As some hosts are single-user personal computers and others are networks serving hundreds of users. Today the estimated number of Internet users is in the excess of 45 million. It is expected that this number will rise to 200 million by 2002.

There are many reasons for such a rapid growth of the Internet. The biggest is the free and open access to the basic documents, especially the specifications of the protocol. Also the Internet has a flexible structure and no single organization controls it. It is reliable and very easy to extend. Simple easy to use software and inexpensive access to the general public are becoming widely available around the globe.

Criticisms of the Internet
The Internet is very unstructured. The different computers that house all the information are also able to run totally different software, so a user can be faced with multiple interfaces and operating systems. Since the Internet does not have an official body, there is no organization. The Internet can be seen as a huge playground as long as the user has the time to develop the skills necessary to use it (Segal, 1995).

Internet is perhaps criticized the most for being a medium for the instantaneous and uncontrolled transmission of ideas.. Certain kinds of material, such as pornography, are against the law and offensive to some people. Flow of such unethical and illegal material puts great responsibility on the shoulders of parents and educational institutions, because there is great potential danger that children can easily get information that may lead them to destructive conducts.

Corporations face concerns larger than ease of use when they consider connecting their workers to the Internet. Security is one of the chief concerns. The Internet e-mail system traditionally has had few provisions for security, which means hackers could intercept mail in transit leaking confidential information. These problems are being addressed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a voluntary membership organization responsible for the operational and near-term technical problems of the Internet (Segal, 1995).

Future of the Internet
The Internet has come a long way in its 25 years history. It now connects computers all across the world. Information from anywhere in the world, any country and in all major languages can be accessed from your computer. But one should not conclude that the Internet has now finished changing. It will, indeed it must, continue to change and evolve at the speed of the computer industry if it is to remain relevant.

First major change we will notice will be the Internet's size and capacity. The current 45 million users are but a fraction of the world's population. And the technology is advancing so rapidly that in a few years, laptops and other simple computers will be so inexpensive that tens of millions more users will be on-line.

Then there is the issue of linking all those computers through the Internet. According to Internet authorities, it could handle the load of being connected to 600 million telephones today. Work is under way to prepare the Internet to handle that volume, and even more. Plans are in the works to make the Internet available through public computer stations, or kiosks, which would soon make accessing the Internet about as easy as making a phone call at a pay phone. To shoppers, it means research can be done more thoroughly for effective results.

But the impact of decreasing computer hardware costs, the Internet can bring entire libraries, if not classrooms, into the home for just a few dollars a year. Not a bad solutions when the costs of higher education are ever-escalating (Ribas, 1996). Already, there are "on-line universities" that facilitate studies at home using texts and information administered over the Internet.

As for navigating the Internet, the World Wide Web system provides a road map for locating sites of interest, or necessary for business. Work is continuing on the navigation system, and it is hoped that it will soon become the equivalent of a high tech white and yellow pages.

Television is soon expected to be linked into the Internet, expanding many folds the entertainment and information possibilities. Through the TV set, we will receive up-to-the second stock information, transpiring news and job information. There will be movies on demand and interactive TV in which the audience participates in shows they watch.

Star Trek style video teleconferencing where callers see each image while they talk on the phone will soon move from the futurist to the present. The hardware is nearly ready for marketing (Ribas, 1996). Virtual reality, the whole field of equipment and programs which make possible such things as flight simulations, is also coming to the Internet for high-tech entertainment and also for instruction and training.

Information on candidates for public office is already available in California, and soon will be available for national elections as well. More revolutionary is that soon voters will be also able to cast their ballets on-line from home or office. The effects on voter turn-out is expected to be enormous.

This is just a sampling of what is yet to come. Larry Crocker, involved with the Internet from its earliest days, said, "The network makes it possible to have complex and even the home may not be that focal point of one's social interactions. Virtual corporations will come into existence on a regular basis." In short, major advances are on the horizon, and many will usher significant changes in our lives. If the Internet stumbles, it will be because we lack the technology, vision, or motivation. It will be because we cannot set a direction and march collectively into the future (Carrol, 1997).

Conclusion

The Internet has been around for quite some time, going back to the late 60's and early 70's when the U.S. government decided they needed a way to keep communication and data transfers going between military personnel and government officials, in case of a major nuclear war. This research for highly reliable nationwide computer system eventually led the birth of the Internet.

Today the Internet expands the globe and beyond. Through it we can access source of information, images, and sounds. The growth of the Internet is incredible. In just a few short years, the Internet has grown from four computers and a handful of users to 9.5 million host computers and networks over 45 million users and still increasing at an exponential growth. Internet is growing so fast it provides thousands of operational and experimental services including email, file transfer through the FTP, and gophers, which allow the user to create and use file directories. While all of the these things have been factors influential in its growth the one factor that has sent the Internet through the roof has been the introduction of the World Wide Web (WWW).

the Internet will continue to grow and get faster as long as people find it useful. The possibilities are endless. The Internet already contains a wealth of information, including millions of bytes of text files, documents, thousands of files available and so on. As fascinating new applications such as Star Trek style video conferencing and multimedia capabilities are added, the Internet will remain a viable research for many years to come.

References

Rutkowski, Anthony M., "Internet," Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia (c) 1993-1995.

Carrol, J., and R. Broadhead (1996). 1997 Canadian Internet Handbook, Scarborough, Ont: Prentice Hall Canada

Hughes, K. (1997). Entering the World Wide Web: A Guide to Cyberspace. [Online]. Available: http: //geosci. uchicago. edu/guide/guide. toc-html

Ribas, S. (1996). The Internet: The Past, The Present, The Future. [Online]. Available: http://ww.kents.com/docs/pub-apr95 .htm

Segal, B. (1995). Short History of Internet Protocols at CERN. [Online]. Available: http://wwwcn.cern.ch/pdp/ns/ben/TCPHIST.htm