FREE online courses on Information Technology - Chapter 8 NETWORK & COMMUNICATIONS IN I T - A NATIONAL NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE

 

There are two examples of national and international networks that resemble the “information superhighway”: the Minitel system in France and the Internet based in the U.S.  The French Teletel system, popularly called Minitel after the name of its first terminal, was introduced by France Telecom, the French government-sponsored telecommunications company, in 1982. By 1993, Minitel was used in 20 percent of households and 80 percent of businesses in France. Users access a wide array of communication, information, and business transaction services. Approximately 6.5 million Minitel terminals are in service in France, which as a population of 57.5 million.

 

Another 500,000 residents of France use Minitel on their personal computer. Altogether about 40 percent of the non-retired French population had access to Minitel either at work or at home. Some 25,000 services are available on the system, a number growing at the rate of 10 percent a year.
 

          Minitel is considered by many to be a mass-market system aimed at the consumer. It is the first and only example of a successful mass-market network venture in the world. It is successful in the sense that it reaches a large proportion of French households and businesses; it offers a rich variety of information, communications and services; and it is estimated to be profitable.

          In 1989, France Telecom introduced a nationwide electronic mail system for businesses and the general public. Information services include the national, on-line telephone directory, schedules for the French national railroad, as well as want ads, stock market reports, and other information that might be found in a newspaper. There are also short-lived or highly specialized information services for the general public. For example, sports fans can access continuously updated information about the position of boats fans can access continuously updated information about the position of boats in around-the-world yacht races and parents sending their children to camp can access daily lunch menus.
 

          Today on the Internet one finds a huge variety of applications and information sources. In Philadelphia, PCs provided reading-improvement courses over the Internet to 100 low-income homes in a recent test. No one signed up for classes when offered in schools, but students and some parents eagerly registered when given the opportunity to use borrowed computers in the safety and privacy of their own homes. The Internet Talk Radio show provides news and entertainment to users with audio software and speakers on their workstations. A project at NYU helped make the Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR database of corporate findings available on the Internet. In 1995, one could find current weather maps for any region of the country, an on-line exhibit of items from the Vatican Library, art works from several museums, the complete Grateful Dead lyrics, photos of Cindy Crawford, to name a small set of services.
 

          Government agencies post RFPs of Internet servers and contractors can file their bids electronically. There are a number of job postings available on the network and companies including AT&T list information about themselves on the Internet. Mead Data Central provides Internet access to its Lexis/Nexis database on a subscription basis.

          The Internet is also used extensively to share and distribute software. Through anonymous FTP (file transfer protocol), a user can log on to a remove computer as a user with the name “anonymous”, use his or her Internet address as a password, and transfer files from the remote computer to a local computer over the network. Dell distributes new versions of its software via the Internet as well as through other channels.

          Business Week estimates there are 150 journals published electronically. Some scientists are calling for the elimination of paper journals since the lead-time for publication is so great. A large number of journals are posting their table of contents on the Internet and some hope to provide information that is not included in the printed version. There are some 50,000 peer-reviewed technical journals, a $ 3 billion industry. The threat of Internet publishing is very real to these businesses.
 

          The Internet has been criticized for its difficulty of use, Gopher servers, the World Wide Web, Wide Area Information Services (WAIS), and the browser's interface are making the network easier to use. Anyone with an Internet address can download free gopher server and client server and client software to set up an information resource. Many universities have created gophers which contain a hierarchical directory to information about various aspects of the school, such as, registration, general information, financial aid, libraries, schools, degrees, etc. Figure 12-3 shows the menu from the NYU IS Department Gopher server. Anyone on the Internet with a gopher client program can access this information. One publishing firm has placed abstracts of all its products on a gopher server. Gophers can also be accessed by “net browsers” as described below which provide a graphical rather than character-oriented interface.
 

          Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS) provide a distributed text searching mechanism. Every document in a WAIS database must be indexed by contents, something done automatically by WAIS software. A user enters search text and WAIS looks for documents containing the words. A public domain version of WAIS can be used with gophers to provide a search capability.
 

          Researches at CERN in Geneva developed the World Wide Web (WWW) which connects a group of an estimated 30,000 network servers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The Web uses hypertext links produced with the hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to link documents and files. Hypertext is created by placing links on words to reference other sections of text or other documents. Clicking on a highlighted piece of text with a computer mouse results in the retrieval of a new file or document, allowing the users to browse through related pieces of information. The retrieved documents may all reside on different computers, but the Web makes all retrievals transparent to the user.
 

          HTTP is a connectionless protocol which means that each client server connection is limited to a single request for information. This way, the network is not tied up in a permanent connection between the client and server. (The disadvantage is that many connections may be made repeatedly to the same server to request information). The Web is an excellent example of a client-server architecture – your computer is the client and you visit a variety of Web servers as you search for information. Figure 12-4(a) shows the HTML format of a document and Figure 12-4(b) shows the same document as it appears on the screen to a user running a Web browsing program.
 

          To use the WWW, one needs an appropriate interface program or net browser. Many people feel browsers are responsible for some of the recent growth in net use. These programs work by “pointing and clicking” with a mouse, which is a vast improvement over character – based terminal access navigate around the confusing and disorganized structure of the Internet. One can also use browsers to create forms and facilitate the publication of data. While not yet close to providing the kind of development environment for service providers one finds on Minitel, Web browsers are moving the Internet in the direction of greater ease-of-use.

          Open standards have helped the Internet to grow and enabled many people and organizations to become information providers. The World Wide Web, gopher servers, Web browsers, and WAIS clients all operate across many different types of platforms. What is the next likely direction for the Internet?
 

          Two large cable TV operators are considering the use of their coaxial cable networks for providing high-speed access to the Internet while Motorola sells a cable modem for transmission at speeds of 10 megabits, some 700 times faster than over the typical voice-grade lines. About 26 million homes have cable TV and a PC, creating a large potential market for fast Net connection. High-speed cable access would make the Net extremely attractive for home use, especially at prices projected to be $25 to $40 a month including modem rental.
 

          In summary, the Internet was launched with government subsidies for the network and terminals that helped it become established. For most early users, the network appeared to be a free good. Early use of the network focused on interpersonal communications and the sharing of programs and information. Unlike Minitel, the Internet was first used by the general public been growing. Business use on Minitel began immediately while it is a recent phenomenon on the Internet.
 

          The Internet's open standards allowed many users and service providers to connect. The network has an open, decentralized and extendible architecture. The Net's open culture and free exchange of software encourages users and providers. Products like gopher servers, Web browsers (e.g. MOSAIC and Netscape), and browsers from mass market networks like America online and Prodigy are making the network interface far more pleasant. A spate of articles on the information superhighway “cyberspace” and the Internet (including cartoon in the New Yorker) have made a network connection highly fashionable. All of these factors have led to the critical mass needed for the network to succeed.