The true significance of the Internet
by Howard Smith
Introduction
I have been an Internet user since 1986. Back then I mostly used the net to communicate with friends and associates, using Unix mail. Occasionally I had need to download a file using FTP- after all, it was simpler than asking someone to send it to me via mail, especially for large files. As my experience grew, mailing lists became an excellent way to keep in touch with groups of knowledgeable folks and to stay on top of certain topics. I watched as the number of lists grew steadily and with it, the rise of Usenet news. Like others, I was intrigued by the emergence of Gopher, Veronica and WAIS, the means to organise and retrieve networked resources. This stuff was getting to be really quite useful ... "I ought to learn more about it". It was around 1991 that I decided to add 'Internet' to the list of technologies I considered could be relevant to my career in the IT industry - in any case, this stuff was fun :-)
Many Internet users knew - deep down - that the Internet was important, perhaps very important - but we found it difficult to express this clearly to those who had not (yet) taken their first steps online. Based upon the Internet's pedigree and our experience as users, it was clear that the basic technology was both powerful and mature. The network allowed us to do things that others found difficult to understand. We were amused by alternate efforts to create "open systems" when we had been using one for so many years!
We were cosy in our own little online universe. Only a few wise ones knew enough to know what was really going on - the various Internet standards and advocacy groups - the Internet service providers - the network infrastructure vendors - all quietly investing time and money in what would later be dubbed "global information infrastructure". How so many commercial organisations could miss the significance of the net still surprises me.
Then, in early 1993, we saw our first Web page. Everything changed - overnight. Everything was now crystal clear. Groups of Web enthusiasts began to evangelise about the World Wide Web and this wonderful new program called Mosaic - how it was all going to change the world. What we could not understand was how everyone else did not see it the way we did! So, to reinforce our message many of us succumbed to hyperbole, which always damages good argument.
Yet, we kept coming up against blockheads. Here are some of the things I have heard over the last couple of years:
"Internet is an evil technology - it wouldn't surprise me if it disrupted many businesses" - well at least the last part hits the nail on the head
"Let's wait and see what will happen with the Internet - in a few months time the world could look a very different place - for instance, how about the Microsoft Network? - Microsoft are serious about business after all" - and look what happened ...
"Does anyone in the business world actually use the Internet? - Surely it is really just the equivalent of CB radio for the 1990s" - that one really stumped me!
"Should commercial organisations be seen to be participating in a technology used to distribute pornography?" - sure, like satellites that carry adult channels
"It wont take off until someone finds the killer application - it's like all these technologies, a solution looking for a problem" - if the Web isn't a killer application then I don't know what is!
This last quotation illustrates a commonly held misunderstanding about the nature of the Internet and the Web. These folks just couldn't see the power of the underlying technology.
In retrospect it was to be expected. Only pre-Web (i.e. pre-1993) Internet users had the background to understood the combined potential of Internet (pervasive connectivity) and the Web (distributed applications). Yet there is still profound confusion about the true significance of the Internet. Now if all this sounds a little like "we are wise, you are the unknowing" then I can only add in my defence that it feels like this at times ...
Lost amid the current media interest in public relations Web sites, intranets and more recently electronic commerce, we seem to have lost sight of a simple fact. We are moving, quite rapidly, to a position where every computer system in the world is connected - by some means or other - to every other computer system - and they all have Web front ends. Think about it ...
Connectivity, not the Web, has been the enabler for an outpouring of innovation the like of which has never been seen before in the computer industry, or any industry. The pace of this innovation continues unabated. Its effect I believe is and will continue to be more significant than that attributed to the invention of the Personal Computer during the 1980's.
Put another way, from the cosy up-front home page world of the corporate Web browser we are missing the forest for the trees - the emergence of one global computer network. Sure, there may be a few private islands, with strictly controlled interoperability to other systems across security perimeters (these are currently called firewalls); and yes, there are going to be private pathways through the global network (these are currently called tunnels) but the thing to grasp is that every computer anywhere will have the potential to interoperate with all others - one to one, one to many, many to one, many to many.
One network, one world
Before we go on, let's make sure everyone is a true believer - let's ask some dumb questions:
Question 1
What network protocol software comes with every computer operating system? Answer: TCP/IP, the Internet Protocols.
Question 2
Does any other networking software come with computer systems as standard - that can operate over wide area networks? No.
Question 3
Who is actively developing alternative networking technologies to TCP/IP. I can't think of any.
Question 4
Name a major corporation whose core IT strategy (not necessarily what they have today) is not based upon IP? I think it would be hard to find more than a handful - and usually only due to a legacy constraint.
Question 5
Name a software vendor who does not claim to have an Internet strategy! Some even have one ;-)
Question 6
Is anyone developing a version of Web technology (servers and browsers) that uses a transport protocol other than TCP/IP? Not to my knowledge.
Let's put it another way. If organisations everywhere are deploying the same networking technology inside their security perimeter as is deployed outside, where will this process of harmonisation stop?
As the pressure to interoperate moves from the network level to the application level the imperative for IT planners will move from "Which supplier will we buy from" to "What's everyone else using?". Whatever is deployed "out there" will be deployed "in here" - behind the corporate firewall. You've got no option, that is if you want to play in the digital networked economy. For some industries, quite soon, this new arena will be the only show in town.
The rise of the intranet
Right now, everyone is agreed on TCP/IP. That argument is over, thank goodness. IT planners think no more about the issue than they do the supply of electricity to the buildings in which their employees work. Web servers are next in - everyone wants one - you usually end up with hundreds. Web crawlers over corporate networks could be next. Think of the possibilities of having the equivalent of Altavista (altavista.digital.com) or Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) inside your business. Think of the possibilities of delivering all your network based corporate services on the internal Web. If you thinking this would solve many of your current IT problems you would be right. This stuff is unstoppable. Here are some of the immediate advantages:
1. Web browsers are either free or virtually free. Cost-per-seat is effectively zero compared to other groupware products.
2. Web browsers are universal. They can be used as the interface to any corporate information service. Users like that. Help desk staff like that.
3. The combination of Web server and Web browser is the ideal middleware for integrating different corporate legacy systems, both at the server end and the client end. Users see a unified interface to disparate corporate systems.
4. Web browsers are platform independent. Deliver your services via the Web and you will never again have to worry about porting applications, supporting different versions of operating systems.
5. Web servers deliver up to date information and applications. Want to change the user interface to an application - just do it. All users see the change instantly. No roll-out required.
6. The Web client-server model is efficient over low bandwidth networks. Many corporate nets contain some low bandwidth links - just like the Internet. Traditional client-server technology just doesn't work over poor wide area (WAN) links.
7. Giving your users one interface to both the intraweb and the World Wide Web makes sense. After all, where is the boundary between you and the systems in place within your suppliers and partners?
8. What works on the Internet will work for any large organisation - and this will start to change the way corporates think about sourcing technology. They will look beyond their immediate "preferred suppliers". Hey, they may even start looking at some of the really cool stuff going in on .edu - looking to gain competitive edge. The net is changing the way software is developed and sourced.
TCP/IP is basic networking technology for the 1990s. There appears to be nothing else, not even on the horizon. It's as if those ARPA folks back in the 60's hit on something so fundamental that no one can think of any reason now to invent something else. TCP/IP, the Internet, does everything we need today and everything we can possibly think we need to do tomorrow. Could this be true? Of course not - but who cares. Right now, Internet technology seems to be sufficient to meet the needs of all networked computing systems for the foreseeable future. It does not matter whether we are talking about PPP, ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM, carrier pigeon or Ethernet, TokenRing and FDDI, its all TCP/IP at the level which matters - the application.
How long could this stuff last? I reckon, at least ten years, maybe more. Remember, right now, Internet networks account for only a tiny percentage of networks deployed. Internet has got a long way to go, there are all those folks who have not yet seen the light. Talk to the Internet service providers, they know we are at the very beginning of this thing. They know they are going to have to multiply the connectivity they provide ten fold, a hundred fold, just to cope with the demand over the next couple of years. This in itself is going to cause some real problems, for as user demand grows and the sophistication of applications deployed increases, it is likely we are going to have to end up paying more for our Internet connection. Some users, typically businesses, will also be paying for premium rate services, which offer service level agreements, dedicated bandwidth, security, value added services and, for some, access to "business only" subnetworks creating the extended enterprise.
Once the world is IP wired anything else that comes along to supplant it must be deployed in a way which preserves that connectivity. Connectivity will be the very fabric of commerce and every other aspect of computing - business, recreational and social. Even if something new is invented we will probably still call it "Internet". It is a nice word after all - so much better than Information Superhighway :-/
One world, one new medium
I say "new" medium for two reasons. First, in the obvious sense of complementing the other media - we now have a genuinely new way of delivering information and services. Second, because unlike other networks before it, every node in this Internetwork is a processing node. Internet is the ultimate intelligent network. It is also the test-bed for everything and anything that computer technologists and content creators can dream up - and boy is some dreaming going on!
Every application, every protocol, every network topology, is possible. This is the medium in which a whole host of new ways of thinking about computer and information systems will be put on trial - both technically and by direct measurement of market response.
The Internet is a genetic pool in which good ideas will flourish in a blaze of glory, silly ideas will never see light of day and established applications whose sell by date beckons will vanish just as quickly as they arose in the first place. The true significance of the Internet is that it allowed the Web to come into existence - culturally and technologically - and it will not stop here.
I refer not only to "in your face" Web-like applications but to the myriad of other uses to which a global network can be put, many of which will be quite invisible to a person skidding around on the surface of the Web. Here's an example:
What in other circles is called EDI (electronic data interchange), what the Internet calls Electronic Commerce, will soon surge through the Internet with renewed vigour. At present there are only around 50,000 organisations using EDI in the U.S. It is too complex, too expensive and very much the preserve of the privileged few. The high ground for EDI is the small to medium sized enterprise (SME) of which there are around 2 million in the U.S. Internet is going to give them a very flexible generic version of EDI based on dynamic multilateral relationships. EDI functionality, business to business transactions, is going to be built right into the heart of the Internet, into routers and at the point of presence where you connect to the net. Internet Service Providers will begin to offer value added services of this kind real soon now. Projects such as CommerceNet (www.commerce.net) are going to deliver standards to support electronic commerce which will spawn a whole new slew of products that will usher in the era of the digital networked economy.
How soon will we see the next killer application? Well, maybe not just yet because right now everyone is still coming to terms with the infinite potential the new Web media has given us. Everyone is betting on the net, and investing heavily. The reason is, unlike all networks before it the Internet has a number of very important features:
Very Important Feature Number 1
It works. Nothing else comes close. The market has decided. Put the past behind you.
Very Important Feature Number 2
It's open, it's non-proprietary, it's based on standards - agreed by consensus and practical evaluation. Buck the standards and you can't play. No one product, network or company can realistically create the digital economy - to think otherwise is utterly naïve. Standards have and always will one of the most important strengths of the Internet.
Very Important Feature Number 3
When you join the net you join on an equal basis to everyone else. Want to offer a value added network service? Just do it. This is entrepreneur heaven.
Endless possibilities ...
What does it mean then, to be "connected" to the Internet? The thing to grasp is that you can only connect if someone else lets you. Fortunately there are organisations - called Internet Service Providers or ISPs - whose sole aim in life is to do just that, connect you - as long you do not have ambitions to set up as an ISP on their "patch".
An ISP is an organisation who is responsible for and operates one or more sub-networks of the global network, extending the backbone, improving the connectivity and increasing the bandwidth. They connect your network to theirs, using an IP router. You are then a part (even for the largest organisations a very small part) of the Internet. You have connected to it and extended it. You have just helped to create global information infrastructure. In one sense you have been absorbed, in another, empowered. The world, quite literally, is your oyster.
Once you are connected, what have you got? Two things:
1. some network address space, to allocate to the computer systems for which you are responsible
2. connectivity, an unmediated view of the whole Internet, not just your ISP's subnetwork
Think of the possibilities. Firstly, global electronic mail. This is the primary reason why many organisations join the net, even today. Studies show that, in some organisations, use of electronic mail is increasing and in some cases exceeding the number of telephone calls into and out of businesses. Secondly, file transfer. The ability to send and receive electronic files quickly and easily makes facsimile look downright old fashioned. Third, access to the Web and Usenet, an invaluable source of information, news and intelligence. Fourth, the ability to offer Web services of your own. Fifth, the option of using the internet to extend your own private network, to create virtual private networks. Sixth, any application you and your trading partners wish to establish to facilitate and streamline your business processes. It could be EDI, it could be collaboration between teams in different locations. You tell me what would make your business sing.
Buyer beware - there are organisations that claim to be ISPs but in reality only provide some limited visibility of the net. They generally cannot allocate you permanent address space and they tend to mediate traffic between you and the Internet. Let's face it, you may be experimenting with some really cool new technology, or a really neat business idea. A real ISP should appear to you as a sheet of the purest glass - they just get you right there on the net but have no interest whatsoever in the traffic you generate. They should be transparent to you and your network.
ISPs are in a unique position for a whole host of reasons and becoming one is a very smart move - if you can persuade the others to join the party. Whenever someone connects to the net they call up an ISP, no one else. The relationship between ISPs and the telcos who supply the leased lines that make the net possible is an interesting one. On the one hand the ISPs have the skills and IP infrastructure. On the other hand the telcos own the wire. Who owns the "Internet customer"?
The money moves in ...
I previously spoke of some very important features of the Internet. Let me be clear, these features are the result of a lot of hard work by a great many people who were motivated to make this thing happen. These were technical folks who have turned the vision of universal connectivity into reality. They were not business men trying to make a fast buck - but we all have earn a crust. Some of these folks have gone onto to make bucks of their own on the success of their efforts. Some have stayed behind. Suckers? You be the judge.
Much has been written about the commercialisation of the Internet, how it could be a good thing, or a bad thing, how it could destabilise the standardisation process etc. Bunk. No one in the business community is trying to develop a new telephone system just for fun. Business uses the telephone network for a variety of purposes, and the same network carries considerable recreational traffic. The same is true of the net. There is no reason to reinvent the Internet and any organisation silly enough to think it can control a slice of the net will soon find otherwise. The Internet is a basic carrier service for certain types of networked interaction between computer systems. Maybe, just maybe some business users will want to establish a high speed, dedicated, business only, value added subnet. That's fine, that's just an extension of the Internet where a few businesses have decided to hang out. They will still want visibility of the global net. Its still one network, one world.
Much has also been written about how to make money on the Internet - as if this is a new phenomenon! There are endless books about how to money on the telephone - one way is called "tele-sales". Niche stuff, small beer. The important thing about the telephone, and the net, is that it enables communication and communication is business.
Internet service providers and those developing commercial implementations of (or applications based upon) Internet technology will make some money, maybe a great deal of money. Everyone else will make money the same way they do in other media - through finding ways to use the media to extend their value chain. Here I think we see part of the true significance of the Internet. Unlike other media the Internet offers a potential multitude of networked applications, applications which can cut across and through traditional business models. It simple terms, you can use the Internet to either cut out middlemen or to invent new kinds of middlemen. It's really good at this.
Piggy in the middle
Any business can be regarded as a kind of middleman - between its suppliers, its partners and its customers. IT has always had a powerful effect upon business. It enables something that is called "re-engineering", which has been fashionable in recent years. Well, the Internet allows for re-engineering on a global scale. Organisations that do not embrace the Internet will be pushed out of the picture by more agile Internetworked businesses or by shifts in business practice enabled by the Internet. Here is an extreme example of what can happen. I call it "organisational opt out".
Definition - Organisation Opt out
When groups of employees within different organisations realise they have something in common which they can exploit together. They just opt out and build a business of their own.
Human networking on the net is just as powerful, if not more so than, IP networking ... and a whole new slew of tools to support human networking are being delivered right now. They are called conferencing tools or communications clients.
There has been much talk of the emergence, on the Internet, of virtual organisations, or collaborative computing and generally a feeling that rapid assembly of skills and resources to particular tasks will lead to new ways of doing business. Of course - but so did the telephone, so did facsimile. Virtual this and virtual that has been happening ever since suppliers, partners and customers started doing business. Virtuality is the equilibrium. The real significance of the Internet is that it will become possible to construct (and destruct) virtual businesses - even whole industries - far more rapidly than has been possible before. How rapidly? I did a small experiment.
I posted messages to selected news groups looking for individuals with certain characteristics. I had assembled a reasonable "staff" for my new venture within a few hours ... and Usenet is slow compared to real time conferencing.
These trends will continue to build during the next five years as business re-aligns itself with the possibilities offered by the Internet. To add to the challenge, the new ways in which customers, particularly consumers, will interact with networked services will have a dramatic effect on the back office systems required by businesses in which to operate in this new media world. When planning your IT take these factors into account.
So what is the true significance of the Internet? I think it is this:
1. There is as much point in worrying about which network protocol to deploy as there is in worrying about how to connect a local telephone network to your subscriber loop. Just do it.
2. There is a 30 foot wave heading towards your business and its called Global Information Infrastructure. Act now.
3. Analyse the effect of a regional, national and global networked economy on your business. Forget irrelevant BPR type exercises internally focused on cost cutting. Look outwards not inwards.
4. Accept that your business is going to be immersed in a new media which will at times resemble global online anarchy. How will YOU rise above the noise?
5. Do not underestimate the potential of your customers to use the net to seek out and find a new supplier for the product or service you currently supply to them.
6. Above all, do not fall into the trap of believing that your private corporate network is anything more than a tiny, largely insignificant, subnetwork of the global Internet. Re-orientate your perspective.
7. In short, concentrate upon finding out how YOU can become a middleman in the digital era. This is not a trend. This is now. This is real. Believe.
Perhaps we should re-define the term "intranet" as the pressure to align internal information systems with Internet standards and technologies, enabling your role in the networked economy.