Internet |
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by Paul Oman |
The internet is the Wild Frontier. It's a Model T and it's also NASA's project Mercury. It will evolve into the Mid-Western America of today, the Cadillac Seville on the showroom floor and the Starship Enterprise. It is the opening shots of phase two of the Computer Revolution. It may be the most dramatic human leap forward in your lifetime. Pioneers are welcome; all others have the option of waiting until it becomes more refined.
What is the Internet?
The internet is, or can be, every bit of information, junk, trivia and potential text/graphic that ever finds itself in a computer. It is a network of thousands and thousands of computers all linked together and sharing whatever is stored in them. This includes scholarly information as well as the perversions of glandular adolescents. There is no form of central control, authority or organization. For all practical purposes, the internet is the "Information Superhighway" we've all read about.
Searching the internet involves taking advantage of one or several search/location programs developed by computer jocks as frustrated as you might become by their inability to find specific information on the internet. Which search programs will survive and which facets of the internet will either fade away or become dominant still remains to be seen.
Complicating this muddled picture is the phenomenal growth of the internet. It is expanding like a virus out of control and with the introduction of ordinary folks like you and me to the system, that demoniac growth will continue unabated. It is open to speculation as to the ultimate impact on the internet of the mass market, many of whom are eyeing it with capitalistic commercial eyes. That is a decided shift away from the traditional academic, government or R&D user.
What About America On-line, Prodigy and CompuServe?
The internet is like having a shortwave radio and a satellite disk compared to the politically correct FM radio stations and network television that these other commercial services mimic. These commercial on-line services are carefully tailored and controlled to appeal to the mass market. Unlike the internet, they are operating a strictly for-profit venture.
All that aside, users of these public commercial systems are clamoring for internet access and they are getting it. The amount and type of access varies and is changing, but always includes, at the very minimum, electronic mail (e-mail). Will these services survive against the much broader, more diverse full internet-only providers? No one seems even willing yet to venture how things will eventually fall out.
How People Are Using The Internet
Even though the internet has an almost unlimited amount of `stuff' tucked into it, not that many people are information junkies. Consider how few people use public (or private) libraries on a regular basis.
When was the last time you simply browsed the library? People that own only a few books or reference sources aren't likely to regularly pluck information from the internet. But to people like me who have bookcases and bookcases of non-fiction works, the internet is a high-tech extension of our lust for information.
So if most people aren't data junkies, what is the allure of the internet? Something like 70% of all internet activity is e-mail. A second primary activity on the internet concerns Newsgroups. These are public discussion areas, user forums or message centers devoted to some topic. There are over 8,000 such groups on the internet. It is here that people can post public messages and read and respond to the messages of others on such topics as the Civil War and Economic Development. E-mail and Newsgroups provide a high-tech outlet for those most human traits of talking and gossiping. E-mail is an alternative to telephoning or faxing. Newsgroups provide a way to join a club or discussion group without leaving your home.
Gaining Access to the Internet
How do you get on the internet? The options available are increasing almost daily. Access varies from only e-mail to a rich menu of all internet options. Many professional groups, associations and organizations are beginning to provide some level of internet access to their members. Houston's computer group, HAL-PC (713-963-4155), is an example of one group providing member access. Some of these groups and associations are not just providing access, they are also moving their own on-line services onto the internet. As already mentioned, at least partial access is available through the commercial on-line services such as CompuServe, Prodigy and America On-line. This is a good option for many potential internet users because it also offers the service's standard fare of offerings in addition to a degree of internet accessibility including e-mail.
I also maintain an account with a bulletin board service in Houston called Houston Incline (713-265-1010). For a very low annual cost I get internet e-mail access. [Free e-mail is included with your HAL-PC membership. Ed.] E-mail addresses generally include some shortened version of the person's name. I established this account so that I could present a generic sounding address, much like the beloved `Occupant' or `Resident' of the US Postal Service. While this service offers only e-mail and a few selected internet Newsgroups, an amazing amount of internet searching and data collection can be achieved through e-mail alone by sending information or search requests to remote host computers.
For full internet access via a friendly Microsoft Windows Interface, I'm very happy with a program called NetCruiser, by Netcom. Netcom has a large and growing list of local access telephone numbers across the US and offers 40 hours of prime time and unlimited non-prime time access each month for $20. Access TheInternet, a 250-page book (about $20) written by David Peal and published by Sybex, includes the NetCruiser software. Although this book is really a user guide for the software, it also happens to be one of the best introductory books on the internet I've come across. Most internet books present the internet in its regular UNIX flavor instead of assuming you've got a friendly Windows frontend. Netcom's voice telephone number is: 1-800-501-8649.
You might also find the $28 book, The Internet Yellow Pages by Osborne/McGraw-Hill to be an excellent place to start finding interesting or novel things on the internet. A sampling includes: "Growing Vegetables - A guide to planting and growing vegetables" followed by how to access this guide, which is located at the University of Delaware. You will also find out how to access "CancerNet", make beer and access thousands of topics. While you are at the book store, buy a copy of Internet World magazine. It is full of useful tips and tricks as well as the internet locations of many article-related topics.
Inside the Internet, Beyond E-Mail and Newsgroups
Programs called Archie, Gopher, Veronica, Jughead and Web Crawler are all used to move around the internet and/or find and view information. You will need to understand the limitations of each before you can become an expert at searching the internet for some specific bit of information. For less critical searches, for general `surfing' around the internet, and to go to a specific internet location such as those listed in the Internet Yellow Pages, you don't have to become an expert. Much of what you will do and see consists of menus or listings that, when selected, take you to the next level of information. While no index of internet resources is complete, a number of them (listed below) begin by offering a list of subjects, something like a card catalog or index in a book. Select the broad topic you are interested in and you will be offered a submenu of more specific facets of the main topic. For search professionals it may seem crude, but for ordinary folks like you or me, it often gets the job done.
Although not technically correct, you will find that locations or addresses on the internet seemingly fall into three main types: Telnet, Gopher and web pages. Telnet addresses offer remote access to a specific computer at a specific site. In effect you become a terminal linked to that computer. You will probably be asked for a `login' name and then be expected to know the navigation commands for the particular computer you're logged on to. It is my personal opinion you'll see less and less Telnet addresses just because of their `crude' appearance and their insistence that you know their navigational commands.
An internet gopher is actually more of a search and menu generating tool than an internet site, but often the location of information is given as a gopher address. Gopher-based internet sites generally take you to a menu page where you start making selections `up' to a more general menu or `down' to a more specific menu or the actual information. One of my favorite gopher sites is: gopher.texas-one.org, but more on that later.
World Wide Web pages, web pages for short, is the best of the lot. Web pages look and act like the searchable CD-ROM encyclopedias and reference books you see demonstrated at computer stores and in computer magazines. They are full of readable text and pictures. Click on certain highlighted words and you're zoomed off to additional information related to those words. That's called hypertext and it's a big part of all web pages.
Besides being the easiest to use of all internet presentations, and the fastest growing, it is also the most commercial. Many businesses, both large and small, are beginning to maintain web pages to present themselves, and their products or services, to the millions of internet users. GE shows off its latest adhesive products, a major book publisher offers its technical books for sale, a small florist offers its floral services to web readers. This new marketing tool seems to work best with end-user consumer products.
It is too early to tell how it will work for business to business marketing. I have a vested interest in hoping that it does work well. I have my own web page promoting a line of solvent-free epoxy coatings. These coatings can be applied underwater and are being used in chemical, industrial and marine facilities. Check it out at: http://www.tenagra.com/progress/. A company called Tenagra can get your company or organization onto a web page. Contact Dr. Clifford Kurtzman, president of Tenagra, at: 713-480-6300.
Internet Places to Visit
Searching for something on the internet? Try the following web pages. They offer listings of topics to explore:
http://www.clark.net/pub/journalism/awesome.html
If you need to enter your own search term to find something on a web site, go to:
Texas Marketplace
For several years the Department of Commerce of the State of Texas has maintained an on-line service (bulletin board) known as the "Texas Marketplace". Main topic areas on this system include: Texas company directories, business to business product matching services, international trade leads, demographic information, state licenses and permit information, etc. That system is currently being rolled into a new bulletin board system known as Texas-One. Texas-One can be accessed through either its own telephone number (modem #: 1-800-227-8392), or through the internet at gopher site: gopher.texas-one.org. For more information call 512-936-0238. The idea behind Texas-One is to collect information of value to small businesses and make it available at one location. Not only is Texas related information available, the Texas Department of Commerce also culls information from across the internet and makes that information available. Texas-One is just getting started and how it ultimately develops, and what types of other internet-based business information it collects, is not yet fully known. In any case, it is a location which business users of the internet should keep an eye upon.
Window On State Government
The Texas State Comptroller's office also maintains an on-line system (modem # 1-800-227-8392) that is also available on the internet. It contains economic and financial information, as well as related topics. Unlike Texas-One, this internet location is a web page: http://www.window.texas.gov.
Conclusions
The internet is becoming a key piece of our high-tech, computer-based world. It will not go away and both you and I will have to come to terms with it either now or in the months to come. Very soon computer literacy will not just mean operating a computer, it will also mean mastering the on-line internet aspects of it as well.
Paul Oman, a HAL-PC member, is a marketing and business consultant, whose firm PROTECT provides sales and marketing support.
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