IS Week 2 Living in the Information Age The International Information Society and YOU ! SC Chap 7

Introduction F Telecommunications (networks) F Applications (software programmes) F An information superhighway ~ Internet F The irrelevance of physical distance F An electronic village? F Challenges and opportunities? F Business Possibilities?

What is the Internet? F Networks - computers "connected" by "media" and software F Internet - network of networks F Ownership and management F Origins - ARPANET F Worldwide connectivity (almost) F Uses of the Internet.

How does information flow on the Internet? - 1 F Clients and Servers F "Packet switching" and "routing" F Direct Providers - Companies, Universities F Internet Service Providers (ISPs) –Asiaonline, Hong Kong Supernet, Netvigator F Backbones, dedicated and leased lines

How does information flow on the Internet? - 2 F Internet Addresses and domain names F Uniqueness of the IP Address F International format of addresses F or - cityu.edu.hk F hippo.ru.ac.za - or F edu, com, int, org, gov, net, hk, br, jp, cn,... F Non-standard Address Formats –bu.edu, scmp.com, hk.super.net

Internet Applications F World Wide Web (WWW, W3, Web) F Electronic Mail ( ) F File Transfer Protocol (FTP) F Telnet

World Wide Web - WWW, W3, Web F Information linked to information. F The use of hyperlinks –HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol –Multimedia plug-ins ( ) –Java applets, ActiveX (12.31) F Text, audio, graphics, animation, video, … F Webcasting - information pushed to you F Web publishing F Webmaster

WWW Characteristics F Why are hyperlinks powerful? F What are the limitations of the WWW? –Speed, Volume, Cost, Accessibility, Usefulness F How do web pages actually work? –HTML - Hypertext Markup Language –Marked-up text and Tags F Surfing the web

WWW - Browsers F To view web pages, you need a Web Browser - Netscape, Mosaic, Microsoft Internet Explorer F Home Pages F URLs - Uniform Resource Locators F History Lists F Bookmarks –permanence

WWW - More Features F Saving documents F Saving pictures F Expired links F Cookies F Privacy and security. F Problems with graphic intensive pages

WWW - Searching for Information F Portals –YahooAltavistaLycos F Search Engines –InfindFast F Intelligent Searching and Asking F Proxy Servers F Limitations - cost, censorship, freedom

F Very widely used as a communication tool F Sending messages from person to person (1 to 1), or person to people (1 to many) F Messages are usually text, but can also include attachments F Creating, Sending, Receiving, Saving, Forwarding, Deleting F Address Books and IP Addresses F

FTP F Exchange files with other computers on the Internet F Freeware or shareware files. F Files may be compressed F Access may be restricted to those who have accounts/passwords on the computers F Anonymous logins

Telnet F Permits logins to remote computers F Access services provided by the remote computer F Library catalogue access F Access to your mainframe-based account when outside CityU F Telnet becoming less popular as the WWW takes over.

Others F Newsgroups - online typed discussion on a particular subject. F Mailing lists - info sent to a list of addresses F Chat Rooms - real-time typed conversation

Intranets (and extranets)( ) F You can see that the Inernet is a powerful tool and that the WWW can be a useful way to deliver information. F Some organisations have now adapted these technologies to their own internal use, i.e. for internal information. F This is known as an Intranet F Access to an Intranet is only possible to members of the organisation

Doing Business on the Internet: Electronic Commerce (EC)

Doing Business on the Internet - 1 F Use of the Internet for advertising and promotion F Use of the Internet for Sales and Service provision F Use of the Internet for information delivery F Use of the Internet for home entertainment F Misuse of the Internet?

Doing Business on the Internet - 2 F 24-hours a day access F Global Presence F Lower Marketing Costs F Lower Employee Costs (salaries) F Lower Storage Costs F Feedback - 2 way communications F Working Around the clock

Doing Business on the Internet - 3 Examples: F Global Organisations F Hotels F Travel Agents and Airlines - CX F HK Telecom - Interactive TV – F Park'nShop F Newspapers

The Future of the WWW? F Faster? Slower? F Cheaper? More expensive? F Better?? Worse? The same? F More integrated with our lives? F More effective searching for information? F Security? F Privacy?

Predictions F The primary channel of communication? F An integral part of education? F The cause of World War 3? F One network for telephone, TV, radio, computer,…? F All electronic devices connected - microwave, washing machine, computer,…? You?

Information Superhighway F A network of high-speed data communications links that will eventually connect virtually every facet of our society.  Do you believe it?  Do you want it?