ABSTRACT
This book is an attempt to depict some of the development and status the Internet has gone through. Issues, past and future developments, forecasts and ideas are presented and discussed. The book’s primary focus is on information technology and end-user computing, global networks and, in particular, computer-mediated communication (CMC). The Internet is not one place or one company. It is a descriptive term for a web of thousands of interconnected broad-and narrow-band telephone, satellite, and wireless networks built on existing and planned communication technology. This infrastructure is a network of networks, reaching out and connecting separate islands of computer, telephone, and cable resources into a seamless web. It connects businesses, governments, institutions, and individuals to a wide range of information-based services, ranging from entertainment (e.g., pay-per-view movies, online music videos), education, and culture to
data banks, cyberspace1 commerce, banking and other services (see also appendix A for further explanation of terms and services available on the Internet).
