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what is the internet ? |
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The most common things you can do are:
Send and receive email with people all over the world. Almost as fast as the telephone, there is never a busy signal, and you never play phone tag.
Join discussion groups about a common subject with Usenet Newsgroups and email discussion lists.
Get or exchange software and files with the File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Log into and use many computers around the world using telnet. Telnet lets you use the resources on a remote computer such as games, databases, library catalogs, and many more interesting things.
Connect to thousands of different computers using gopher menu systems, which make navigation from one site to another easy.
Explore the World Wide Web, which can use all of the above, and adds easy links to other resources and adds multimedia--graphics, sound, and video capabilities.
Talk by keyboard with Internet Relay Chat (IRC), which lets small groups of users meet in conference to "talk" to each other by typing on their keyboards.
Who Owns the Internet?
No organization, corporation or government owns or runs the Internet. Instead, many people and organizations voluntarily participate in task force groups who meet to develop standards for the many various technical needs of running the Internet. Decisions are made by consensus among all who choose to participate, and every point of view is heard in the long process of hashing out decisions and setting new standards.
The equipment--the computers, the cables, the routers, and so on are owned by government and private organizations and are paid for by taxes and user fees. In the early history of the Internet, the US government paid for many of the development and operating costs through government grants. In recent years, the US government has stepped aside except for the portions that link government organizations and let private enterprise develop the nets.
