The Internet Revolution: The Not-For-Dummies Guide to the History, Technology, and Use of the Internet

Who built the Internet? Who controls it, maintains it, makes decisions about what it can and cannot do and what types of information it may and may not carry? What does the Internet consist of and how does it work? This book answers these and many other questions about the Internet, its history, and its use.It's difficult to avoid some reference to the Internet, no matter how hard we may try.  It comes up in conversations with friends and family and in meetings at work.  We hear about the Internet on radio and television programs as broadcasters awkwardly spell out their Internet site addresses.  We see the Internet's effect on commerce everywhere we look, in its role as an entirely new and powerful medium for the distribution of all forms of advertising.This change didn't happen overnight.  But it definitely feels like it did.  It took less than ten years after the Internet was privatized and opened up to commercial traffic in the early 1990s for it to become - quietly and unobstrusively - an integral component of our home life, our jobs, and the world's communication infrastructures, economies, and cultures.  In the course of a few, frenetic years, the Internet has grown into an inexorable force that businesses, non-commercial organizations, governments, scientific and academic institutions, and individuals throughout the industrialized world have not only accepted but embraced.Everywhere we look, we see more and more references to the Internet.  That's because it is becoming part and parcel of everything we do.  The Internet is changing how we raise and educate our children, how we stay connected with our families and friends, how, when, and where we perform our jobs, how we purchase our goods, how we read the weather forecast or our horoscope or send a birthday card.  These changes in our behavior are fundamental and permanent, and they are becoming more pervasive with each passing year.  Consequently, the Internet is changing us, our communities, our societies, and, as you will understand after reading this book, the very interconnectedness of our world.This plain language guide explains:- How computers evolved, and how they became the instrument of a revolution.- Who designed and built the first computer network, and for what purpose.- Why computer networking required the invention of a new type of communication network, and how a computer network differs from a telephone network.- How the Internet was formed, and how it evolved from a private, experimental network into a public, commercial, global communication infrastructure.- What the Internet consists of, how it works, and how it relates to the Web.- How email was invented, how it works, and the role it played in transforming the Internet.- What cyberspace consists of, how it is used today, and what it promises for how we will communicate, work, and play tomorrow.- How and why the technology and management of the Internet fostered a revolution, and the strategies for success that made this possible. "The Internet Revolution" is the first volume of a 3-book series that also includes:- "The Information Revolution: The Not-For-Dummies Guide to the History, Technology, and Use of the World Wide Web" and- "The Technology Revolution: The Not-For-Dummies Guide to the Impact, Perils, and Promise of the Internet."