The Internet is a decentralized global network of millions of diverse computers and computer networks. These networks can all "talk" to each other because they have agreed to use a common communications protocol called TCP/IP. The Internet is a tool for communications between people and businesses. The network is growing very, very fast and as more and more people have access to the Internet, it becomes more and more useful.

Stage: Awareness Training | Internet/WWW Questions

People and businesses find the Internet useful mostly for two applications:

Electronic Mail. People like to use E-mail because it has five very appealing features.

1. Users can easily compose, send, and receive messages right from their desks.
2. E-mail is asynchronous i.e. unlike a telephone conversation, participants do not have to be involved at the same time.
3. Because information is sent and received in digital form, it is easy to keep and access records of conversations.
4. It is easy to send copies of documents to multiple recipients.
5. Newer systems can transmit and read "attachments". With this feature E-mail users can exchange any file format they can create and read - spreadsheets, graphics, documents formatted with a word processor, and so on.

World Wide Web. People are drawn to the Web because it provides easy access to a great deal of information from diverse sources in many countries. Businesses are beginning to realize that the Web is a tremendous resource for marketing, sales, and communication with trading partners. The tremendous power of the Web derives from five of its characteristics.

1. The technology for accessing the Web is minimal. One needs only a computer, a modem, browser software, and an account with an Internet Service Provider.
2. While putting material on the Web is more complicated than accessing information from it, the task is relatively simple for anyone with a moderate amount of computer sophistication. Thus many people with information to share consider the Web a method of choice to tell people what they have to say.
3. The Web can handle multi-media. Thus it can combine graphics, text, sound, animation and video into a single presentation.
4. The Web embeds "hyperlinks" in its presentations. This means that at any place in a document a Web author can let readers jump immediately to another Web document, be it on the same computer, another computer on the same network, or on another computer on the other side of the world.
5. The Web is always working. Via transmission through the Internet untold numbers of "servers" are running day and night to give people access to the information they contain.

There are many other applications that run on the Internet but only one other is likely to be important for most businesses. The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) provides an easy method of copying files from and to any computer that is on the Internet.

Stage: Awareness Training | Internet/WWW Questions
Stage: Business Analysis

The Internet is not a network in the traditional sense in that there is no central Internet administration that keeps track of the each aspect of the network. The Internet was developed during the 1970’s and 80’s by the Defense Department for use by researchers at academic institutions and as an experiment in robust networks that could withstand enemy attacks. During this time certain standards evolved as well a method of modifying these standards. Although the Defense Department no longer runs the Internet, these standards and procedures are still in place and they are what keeps the network running. Thus the Internet is not run by any central authority. Rather, it is maintained because thousands of computer sites agree to communicate via a single communication standard.

The Internet keeps growing because more and more people and businesses find it useful and are willing to pay Internet Service Providers (more about them later) for being connected. This is what pays for the Internet.

Stage: Awareness Training | Internet/WWW Questions

Internet addresses take the form of xxx@yyy.zzz. (Sometimes extra sections are added to the right of the ampersand. This is a function of how messages are routed within particular networks, and are not important for understanding the answer to this question.)

xxx = a unique user within a particular network, e.g. Joe Blow, an engineer at Aardvark Industries.

yyy = the name of an organization, e.g. Aardvark Industries.

zzz = the "domain" of the organization.

Domains are the only aspect of the Internet that is truly managed in a centralized manner. Computers (or networks) on the Internet all have a number (named an IP address). These numbers are essentially meaningless (One of the systems at Microsoft for example, has number 207.68.156.51). If one wants to access Microsoft, however, one can just tell one’s computer to point to "microsoft.com", which is much easier to remember for people. Internally however, the Internet translates "microsoft.com" to 207.68.156.51. In order for this to work, the domain name "microsoft.com", must be unique (if there were two or more, the system couldn’t tell which "microsoft.com" was meant). A non-profit organization named InterNic keeps track of these names and makes sure there is no duplication.

In the above example we used "microsoft.com". The ".com" stands for the fact that Microsoft is a commercial entity on the Internet. Other common designators are:

Sites outside the US may differ from the common system outlined above. Each country ends its address with a country code. Italy for example will end its addresses with ".it". Also, designators may be different. In England for instance, commercial addresses are denoted by ".co", rather than ".com".

Stage: Awareness Training | Internet/WWW Questions

There are two ways you can get access to the Internet:

On Line Services. Such as AOL, CompuServe or Prodigy. These services started before the Internet grew as popular as it is today. They each provide a large amount of content and many services (such as chat rooms and interest forums) of their own. They also provide e-mail and Internet Access.

Internet Services Providers (ISP). These are firms that specialize in the providing of Internet services. Some provide these services to companies, some to the general public, some to other ISP’s and some do all of these activities. They do not provide content like the On Line Services do.

Stage: Awareness Training | Internet/WWW Questions

If the company has a network in place you can hook the network up to the Internet. The low end cost for this would be about $3500/year for an ISDN connection, plus the cost of the ISDN line from the phone company. ISDN lines aren’t universally available yet and their costs vary all over the country, from a low of $30.00/month to $300.00/month.

If the business doesn’t know how to go about connecting itself to the Internet, it would make sense to choose a good ISP and pay for some consulting time from that ISP.

Stage: Design | Internet/WWW Questions

The World Wide Web is a collection of documents written and encoded with the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). With the aid of a relatively small piece of software (called a "browser"), a user can ask for these documents and display them on the user’s local computer, although the document can be on a computer on a totally different network elsewhere in the world. HTML documents (or "pages," as they are called) can contain many different kinds of information such as text, pictures, video, sound, and pointers which take users immediately to other web pages. Because Web pages are continually available through the Internet, these pointers may call up pages from anywhere in the world. It is this ability to jump from site to site that gave rise to the term "World Wide Web." Browsing the Web (or "surfing the Net") can be a fascinating activity, especially to people new to the Internet. The World Wide Web is by far the most heavily used application on the Internet.

Stage: Awareness Training | Internet/WWW Questions

HTML. Hyper Test Markup Language. This is the language in which World Wide Web pages are written.

Hypertext. Hypertext is a way of referencing other documents in a document. A Microsoft Windows help file is a good example of a hypertext document. In these files, key words are highlighted and/or displayed in different color. When you click on these words, the system opens another document pertaining to the word or phrase that was highlighted. Thus a hypertext document contains references to other documents. The most famous form of hypertext documents are HTML pages, which make up the World Wide Web.

Java. Java is a new and innovative programming language. It is different from other programming languages in that programs written in Java will run on a number of computing platforms- such as Microsoft’s Windows, Unix or Apple computers. In traditional programming language, very different programs would need to be written on each of these platforms to achieve the same functionality.

Technically this is made possible because there is a Java interpreter that runs on each of these platforms. Java programs then run in the interpreter environment under each of these operating systems. As a result of this, programs written in Java typically require a lot of hardware resources. Small Java programs (often called "applets" – for small applications) are usually "served" to the local machine over the Web. Java was developed by Sun Micro Systems.

Browser. The software that interprets and displays the HTML pages which make up the World Wide Web. There are a number of browsers on the market. Netscape (from Netscape Communications) is the largest, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is popular as well.

URL. Universal Resource Locator. A naming convention that identifies documents on the Internet. These names are often embedded in HTML documents, so that these documents "link" to other documents elsewhere on the Internet.

Home page. People and businesses have "home pages". This is the opening page of a Website. It is the HTML page where (from the end user’s point of view) the Website starts.

Web site. A web site is a collection of HTML pages at a particular server. There are millions of web sites on the Internet. Some are small, some are large, some are bad and some are good.

Stage: Awareness Training | Internet/WWW Questions

Shop for these consultants in the same manner as you would shop for any consultant. Ask friends and colleagues, check local technical assistance centers (e.g., Manufacturing Technology Centers or Electronic Commerce Resource Centers), search out local user groups, and check out other people’s work by looking at Web sites you like and finding out who designed them. (Web site designers often put links to their own sites in the sites they design for others.)

Once you decide you like a particular company’s work, contact them and check references thoroughly. Ask questions such as : Were the Web sites you liked delivered on-time and within budget? Was the organization easy to work with? How much information and graphics did they need to be given or did they create it all themselves?

Stage: Requirements Analysis | Internet/WWW Questions

There are two general topics to think about:

The Web as a marketing and/or sales tool. If you are in a market where it would be likely for your customers or potential customers to reach you via the Internet, then you should definitely consider putting up a Web Site. Unless you really want to learn how to do it yourself (there are a number of good tools available to help you do this), you should consult with an individual or organization that has had some experience creating Web pages. If you use an advertising agency, they may be able to help you.

The Web as a resource for people in your organization to do their jobs more effectively. Since there is so much information on the World Wide Web, you may very well find that people in your organization could benefit from access to the Web. How you hook them up to the Internet depends on what kind of system you currently have. If you have a Local Area Network in place, you may decide to give everyone access to the Internet and hook your entire LAN to the Internet. Or you could decide to connect certain individuals to the Internet via a dial-up connection.

Or in more specific versions:

10a. Can the Web help me get information I need to run my business?

Maybe. It depends on first, on whether the information is on the Web, and second, on whether you can find it amidst the overwhelming amount of information that is out there.

Does information that is relevant to me exist on the Web? The information is likely to be there if it is within someone’s interest and ability to put it there. Some examples.

• Information technology vendors often list the specifications of their products, answers to common technical support questions, and patches to their software products.

• The federal government provides a great deal of information on legislation, regulation, and information from its agencies that citizens might find useful.

• Companies selling everything from flowers to used machine tools allow customers to shop on the Web.

How can I find useful information? If ever there were a high-tech equivalent to separating the wheat from the chaff, this is it. The amount of information on the Internet is overwhelming, and any given user is sure to find most of it useless. Fortunately there are strategies to find useful information.

• If the information you seek is vendor related, check vendors’ web sites. DuPont, for instance, provides technical specifications on its lubricants. Vendors have good reason to get information to you, and they recognize the value of the Web in reaching customers and potential customers.

• Inspect Web sites maintained by trade associations and professional groups. Because these groups place a high value on service to members, they are likely to use the Web to disseminate information. As an example, the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) uses its Web site to provide information on supply chain integration within the auto industry.

• Ask around. Talk to experts, colleagues and friends. Many people have information needs that are similar to yours. Use the collective wisdom.

• Check out sites maintained by publications. Publications are increasingly aware of the value of combining their paper offerings with the Web. If the information you seek is likely to be in a periodical, it may also be available on the Web. Ziff-Davis for instance, provides a searchable index that cuts across the many computer related magazines that it publishes. It also provides text to many of the articles you will find.

• Use search engines. Lycos, Alta Vista, Web Crawler and Yahoo! are but a few of the search engines you can find on the Web. Use their "information paths" to navigate toward detailed information. On Yahoo! for instance one can find venture capital firms through an easy succession of hyperlinks: business and economy à small business information à venture capital à directories. If the obvious paths don’t work, use their powerful search capacities to sift through the Web based on your specified combinations of words and phrases.

10b. Can the Web help me with marketing or sales?

This depends on the market you are in. If you sell widgets to the poor in Russia, your customers are unlikely to see your message or place their orders from the Internet, because poor people in Russia are unlikely to have Internet access. But if you are in a market where it would be likely for your customers or potential customers to reach you via the Internet, then you should definitely consider putting up a Web Site. Unless you really want to learn how to do it yourself (there are a number of good tools available to help you do this), you should consult with an individual or organization that has had some experience creating Web pages. If you use an advertising agency, they may be able to help you.

10c. Can I put a catalogue on the Web?

Yes, definitely. There are many catalogs on the Web already and more and more being created all the time.

10d. Can customers do business with me using the Web?

Yes, there are already many firms doing business on the Web. Off-the-shelf applications exist to allow people to choose items from a catalogue and via secure encryption, to transmit orders to you.

10e. Can the Web help me communicate or coordinate with my customers or suppliers?

Yes. Think of the Web, with its extreme ease of use, hyperlinks, multi-media capability, and variable levels of password protection, as a tool to improve almost all aspects of communication with your trading partners. Some examples to get your creative juices flowing.

• Allow your customers to order from you over the Web.

• Put up a Web Site so that your suppliers can see what you need and when you need it.

• Set up a form on your website which suppliers can use to tell you what they are shipping you, and when.

• Let your customers track the progress of their orders.

• Give suppliers access to a data base on engineering change notices or quality problems which have been encountered.

• Improve your relations with customers by pointing to sites that are do not compete with you, but which provide useful information. As an example, if you are a printer, point to sites on book advertising.

Stage: Business Analysis | Internet/WWW Questions

It depends a great deal on the kind of Web site you want to put up. If you are a large catalog retailer such as Land’s End, and you want to produce a highly interactive site with thousands of products, the costs could very well be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, exclusive of site maintenance. If, on the other hand, you simply want to put up a one page resume with a picture of yourself, you could probably produce the page yourself and the maintenance cost would be nil. Here are some of the parameters to look at:

Domain name. For reasons of name recognition, you will need your own domain name (such as www.microsoft.com). You propose and clear the name you choose to InterNic. The costs are about $200 for the first 2 years and $50/year thereafter if you do it yourself…more if you ask a consultant to do it.

Establishing the site. You have two choices:

1. You can host an entire Web Site yourself . Depending on the traffic you expect at the site, the connection to the Internet costs anywhere from $3000/year to hundreds of thousands. In this case, your Local Area Network gets a permanent Internet connection to an Internet Services Provider that can be used for all Internet traffic into and out of your organization. Typically you will dedicate a server to the tasks of running e-mail post office functions and web serving. Lowest cost for server, software and installation is about $7500. A sophisticated set-up will cost tens of thousands. You also will need to worry about security issues and up-time. If you or your staff don’t have the knowledge to do this yourself you will need consultants to help set this up. Typical cost for Network consultants is $90 to $150 per hour.
2. The alternative for smaller companies is to get an Internet Services Provider to host a Web site for you. Typical costs for hosting a relatively simple Web Site are in the $30 to $200 per month. This includes 10 to 20 MB of disk space (sometimes redundant, so that if one machine is busy or down, the other will continue to serve your pages to the askers on the Internet) and (closer to the $200/month) the environment needed to do catalogs and other interactive things on your Web site.

Content development. These costs vary enormously depending on the kind of site you wish to have. A simple non-interactive web site, with a few pages of text and graphics can usually be developed for $1000 or so. If you want to publish a catalogue, allow people to order on your Web site, and otherwise expect users to interact with the Web site, the costs quickly rise to $10,000 or even $100,000. In addition you will need to count the ongoing maintenance of the site. No site can stay static for very long. Content must be updated every so often. The more sophisticated the sight, the higher the maintenance costs.

Stage: Requirements Analysis | Internet/WWW Questions
Stage: Design

That depends on what you want to do. With a Computer, modem, an Internet connection and a simple browsing program you can use the Web. If you want to put up a Web site, you can get an ISP to host it for you. If you want to host your own Web site you will need a permanent Internet connection. This is more complicated and you will probably need some consulting/installation help from an Internet Services Provider (ISP) to get that up and running.

Stage: Requirements Analysis | Internet/WWW Questions
Stage: Design