The Inter Net is a global collection of inter-connected networks, connected using the TCP/IP protocols which evolved from ARPANET in the 1960s and 70s and was made more prominent in the 1990's as the 'Information Superhighway'. By connecting tens of thousands of independent networks into a vast global internet it is the largest wide-area network, allowing businesses and people across the entire planet to communicate. While the internet is dependent upon the global communications net (telephone and network cables, radio, computers, etc.), it itself is a hybrid of these technologies which 'floats' upon them as a separate organism.
And what exactly was the "information superhighway" other than a great deal of hype? Was it a technological change? A social change? A policy change? Was it anything at all?
When Jack Rickard's army of sysops tore up the Internet AUP and took over the retail end of internet service provision, various government and institutional groups freaked. The "Information Superhighway" media blitz was an attempt to characterize the internet as civil infrastructure that would have to be regulated and controlled, and that was too important to be entrusted to the ex-BBS barbarians who had occupied it (that last phrase is verbatim from a government communications bureaucrat). Fortunately, the campaign failed, and the internet operates on the same free market model as the old BBS networks did. Cheers. -- Marc Thibault
It was just like you stated: hype. Before it was dubbed 'The Information Superhighway', the internet was already there and becoming more accessible and commercially valuable. When was the term 'internet' brought into use anyway? I'd guess the term is older than you are.
What is the Internet?
The Internet is...
the opposite of an Intra Net
a buffet for the information-starved
a source of entertainment
an important means of communication
one of the greatest marketplaces on Earth
new life for those who wouldn't otherwise have a life
a way of life and living
the pacifier of the 21st century
one of the greatest modern inventions
materialized global consciousness
[The Internet is...] the nervous system of modern society
Actually, the internet floats on top of the global communications net (GCN). Most services making use of the GCN do so through one or more protocols and that's really all the internet is: a protocol of communication. People tend to think the internet is what the GCN is. They think the internet is a bunch of wires and radio signals and so-on, but they don't realize the wires and types of signals used are only linking the various transmitters and receivers that use the protocol known as the internet.
The GCN would more accurately be described as the 'nervous system of modern society', not the internet.
That depends on your definition of modern society (vs the old kind)
This is very hyperbolic, the media is more accurately described as this, but the Internet is a subset of the media.
Oh really? Then please tell us where hypermedia like web sites, blogs and wikis exists outside of the internet. Or hell, where exactly is Usenet outside of the internet? in UUCP over modems? Where is google?
And in fact, it's not much of an exaggeration. Within Twenty Years, the internet will have replaced most or all other media. In particular, it's already replaced half of publishing in the last twenty years, and will do the same for the other half in the next twenty. There isn't going to be a publishing industry in 20 years.
I've restated.
See also: Category Web Design, Category Web Services
See original on c2.com 