ABSTRACT
The internet is now a normal feature of our everyday life; it is no longer merely a channel of communication between academics and researchers. It is used as a source of information, a quick, cheap and easy means of communication via e-mail and social networking and user-generated content (UGC) sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube (see Social networking and user-generated content (UGC) sites later in this chapter), as well as an essential channel for advertising and commerce. It is currently estimated that around 2.9 billion people worldwide have access to the internet (about 40 per cent of the world’s population), with 280 million users in the United States, 551 million in Europe (of whom 57 million are in the United Kingdom) and 1.4 billion in Asia. The internet was originally set up by US military and civil defence
bodies in the late 1960s; in 1993, non-military functions were separated out into Arpanet (Advanced Research Projects Agency), providing a network to link communications between academic and research establishments in different areas of the United States. It is now a supranational telecommunications system that links a host of private and public networks worldwide. By its very nature, the internet has developed rapidly and organically
with no central control mechanism, no single code of conduct and with a philosophy still prevailing amongst many of its dedicated users that (apart from the initial cost of linking up and telephone time) the service is free. Users normally pay a link-up and monthly connection charge for access to the internet via an online service provider (e.g. AT & T, Verizon and Comcast in the United States and Virgin, Carphone Warehouse’s TalkTalk or British Telecom (BT) in the United Kingdom) plus charges for telephone time; most providers offer a service for a fixed monthly charge. In effect, users have access to sites worldwide for the price of a local telephone call and can transfer and download digital files in perfect form and for a potentially infinite number of other users. The provision of broadband service has facilitated speed of access and the ability to download even larger amounts of text, audio and audiovisual material. It is estimated that by the end of 2013, 696 million users had access to broadband.
