Syuhada

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 internetworked 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.