The "Information Superhighway"

When many computers linked on a wide area network allow quick access to many resources such as databases or electronic mail (E-mail), and programs on remote computers provide for easy and fast access to these resources, the network can be considered a "highway" of information.

The Internet is a network of resources, the international linking of tens of thousands of businesses, universities, and research organizations with millions of individual users. The Internet provides users with an enormous amount of information on a wide variety of topics. In addition, the Internet provides the means to allow communications between computers and share computer program, databases, manuscripts, and spreadsheets across the world, or even do video conferencing.

The Internet was originally formed in the 1970's as a military network. Quickly, universities and companies involved with defense-related research were given access. In the late 1980's, the Internet became the de-facto global network for most universities and many businesses around the world. In 1993, when commercial providers were first permitted to sell Internet connections to individuals, usage of the network exploded. Millions of new users came on-line within months, and a new era of computer communications began.

The Internet is by no means the only way by which computer users can communicate with others. Several commercial on-line services provide connections to members who pay a monthly connect-time fee. CompuServe, America On-line, Prodigy, Genie, and several others provide a tremendous range of information and services, including on-line conferencing, electronic mail transfer, program downloading, current weather and stock market information, travel and entertainment information, access to encyclopedias and other reference works, and electronic forums for specific user groups such as PC users, sports fans, musicians, and so on.

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