Sharifah Shaffira

Shuhada
Syazwani
Many people think that the Internet is a recent innovation, when in fact

the essence of it has been around for over a quarter century. The Internet

began as ARPAnet, a U.S. Department of Defense project to create a

nationwide computer network that would continue to function even if a

large portion of it were destroyed in a nuclear war or natural disaster.

During the next two decades, the network that evolved was used

primarily by academic institutions, scientists and the government for

research and communications. The appeal of the Internet to these bodies

was obvious, as it allowed disparate institutions to connect to each others'

computing systems and databases, as well as share data via E-mail.

The nature of the Internet changed abruptly in 1992, when the U.S.
government began pulling out of network management, and
commercial entities offered Internet access to the general public for
the first time. This change in focus marked the beginning of the
Internet's astonishing expansion.
According to a survey conducted by CommerceNet and Nielsen
Media Research in early 1997, nearly one out of every four Americans
over the age of 16 is an Internet user. And the number of users
worldwide is believed to be well into the tens of millions. Other
statistics are equally startling:
A CNN report stated that Internet traffic in 1996 was 25 times what it
was just two years earlier.
The market research group IntelliQuest pegged the number of Internet
users in the U.S. in late 1996 at 47 million - a 34 percent increase over the
first quarter of that year.

According to IBM, 146 countries currently have at least some level of

Internet access.

The technology research firm IDG estimates that by century's end, one
billion people worldwide will have access to personal computers—more
than doubling the computer-savvy population of 1996.
Internet applications take advantage of Internet
technology to give access to users at dispersed
locations. For example, Auburn SeeWolf
developed a vote tabulation application, allowing
County clerks in each County to enter voting
results. The application tabulates the results and
provides summary reports through a public web
site, while allowing administration through a
private, password protected site. This application
reduces staff, provides timely results, and
improves data quality by avoiding redundant data
entry into local, State, and public databases.
Internet applications are very effective when:
Access is required from many different
locations.
All users have access to the Internet.
The user interface is not overly complex and
the amount of data displayed to the user does
not require excessive bandwidth.
Funding is limited.
In addition to the many information tools on the Internet, the
readily available and easy to use communication tools helped in
large part to make the Internet so popular. The scientists and
researchers who first used the Internet realized that the increased
communications capabilities that they had would benefit not just
academics, but all sectors of society. Today, tools such as
electronic mail, newsgroups, chat, and even Internet phone are
providing supplemental ways to communicate with people
around the world.
Each tool has pros and cons which you will want to weigh before
deciding which tool bests suits your purpose for communicating.
For example, if you have relatives you contact frequently who live
far away, you might find that sending electronic mail to each
other will be much more economical than using the telephone. On
the other hand, you may find you value hearing the voice of the
other person and so decide that the telephone is the best
instrument to use.
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Netiquette, a portmanteau of "network netiquette", is a set of
social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks,
ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums.
However, like many Internet phenomena, the concept and its
application remain in a state of flux, and vary from community to
community. The points most strongly emphasized about USENET
netiquette often include using simple electronic signatures, and
avoiding multiposting, cross-posting, thread hijacking, and other
techniques used to minimize the effort required to read a post or a
thread.
Netiquette guidelines posted by IBM for employees utilizing
Second Life in an official capacity, however, focus on basic
professionalism, maintaining a tenable work environment, and
protecting IBM's intellectual property. Similarly, some Usenet
guidelines call for use of unabbreviated English while users of
online chat protocols like IRC and instant messaging protocols
like SMS often encourage trends in the opposite direction.
Netiquette originated prior to the emergence of the
world wide web in 1989. Text-based email, Telnet,
Usenet, Gopher, Wais, and FTP dominated internet
traffic, which was primarily used by educational
and research bodies. At that time, it was
considered somewhat indecent to make
commercial public postings and the limitations of
insecure, text-only communications demanded the
community have a common set of rules. The term
"netiquette" has been in use since as early as 1988,
as evidenced by early posts of the satirical Dear
Emily Postnews column.
Cyber law (also referred to as Cyberlaw)
describes the legal issues related to use of inter-
networked information technology. It is less a
distinct field of law in the way that property or
contract are, as it is a domain covering many
areas of law and regulation. Some leading
topics include intellectual property, privacy,
freedom of expression, and jurisdiction.