http://bruessard.com - Information Superhighway

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INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

Many people tend to use the phrases Internet and World Wide Web interchangeably as if they are the same thing. They are not the same thing. The Internet consists of a network of interconnected computers in which a wide array of content is served. The Internet consists of many components, protocols, or methods of communicating and transmitting information. The World Wide Web is but one component of the multifaceted Internet.

The World Wide Web or the HTTP protocol has emerged as the Internet's most popular and predominant component. Not only did the arrival of the web browser serve as a software front end that permitted users to navigate the hardware back end of the Internet more easily but also the web browser began to duplicate the functionality of other Internet components. The web browser began to unify these other functionalities (such as email, FTP, TELNET, IRC, GOPHER, and so forth) under the auspices of the browser's HTTP protocol.

Watch (What is the world wide web? - Twila Camp)

To be sure, with the emergence of cloud computing to complement the web browser, the web browser is beginning to emerge as an operating system in its own right. Given the emergence of cloud computing, it is conceivable that, at some future date, perhaps some users will opt to use a Live CD disc or a Live USB stick such as Knoppix to boot their computing devices, and then they will proceed to do all of their computing chores exclusively via cloud applications. Some of the decision makers at Google, Inc. seem to have reached a similar conclusion as personified by the Chromebook aspect of Google's overall corporate strategy. [It should be noted that cloud computing is not the only option. Desktop or workspace virtualization remains a popular option for getting computing chores completed as exemplified by companies such as Ceedo and Citrix.]

Web-based operating systems represent one of the latest ways for humans to get things accomplished using various computing devices. The oneye screenshots illustrate how web-based operating systems currently work. The two essential components of web-based operating systems are a computing device and a way of connecting that device to the web-based operating system. Consider the case of oneye, for instance. oneye, an offshoot of eyeOS, is a feature-rich, free web-based operating system. oneye comes prepackaged with a host of software applications and software utilities. oneye offers a bridge for the poorest countries to connect to the Information Superhighway. For, with a web-based boot system such as Webconverger working in tandem with a feature-rich, web-based operating system such as oneye, citizens of poorer countries are better positioned to enjoy all of the benefits of the World Wide Web. Citizens of poorer countries would sustain minimal financial overhead on the software end of the Information Superhighway's software/hardware spectrum. As I mentioned on the "Education for All" page of this website, there are numerous educational resources available to all on the World Wide Web. Many of these educational resources are free. oneye goes a long way towards placing these educational resources within the grasp of masses of humans. If a golden opportunity presents itself to educate one's mind practically for free, then it is an opportunity that I strongly encourage the world's poor to embrace.

Even in developed countries, having acquired its own domain name and having found a web host that supports oneye such as my web host, FatCow, all that a household unit needs to do is upload oneye to the web host. The household unit then could proceed to give all family members access to the uploaded oneye operating system. With all household members having access to an individualized oneye account, the situation potentially has the makings for becoming a game-changing development. Suddenly, the household unit would discover that it does not necessarily need to own, say, Windows, MacOS, Linux distros, and so forth, including the popular software applications that normally accompany these more established operating systems (albeit oneye derives much of its functionality from the Linux server environment). Admittedly, oneye is not as robust as the more established operating systems, but there is always room for oneye to improve and grow. A copy of oneye was uploaded to this website, bruessard.com, for internal review purposes only. At this point in time, this website does not offer oneye accounts for the general public to use; however, you can take a peek at oneye by clicking here.

Google, too, offers users an impressive inventory of online or web-based computing products. Google's Apps suites rival—and, indeed, surpass—oneye in terms of their overall versatility. There presently are several versions of Google Apps:

You, the user, also can gain access to a fourth version of Google Apps, Google's personal apps (such as Google Docs), when you sign up for a free Google account.

A key difference between oneye and Google Apps is this: With oneye, you manage and control the applications and documents on the hosted server. You can host the applications and documents on your own server if you choose to do so. With Google Apps, Google hosts, controls, manages, and updates the applications and documents on its privately owned cloud servers, which is not a bad thing.

The broader point is this: By connecting humans across the globe, the Internet is beginning to transform planet Earth into a global village. The Internet is beginning to transform humanity into one interconnected or linked world.

Up to this point in the Internet's history (as of 2012), perhaps its watershed moment occurred in 1985. For, on March 15, 1985, the ".com" (dotcom) domain extension was registered to symbolics.com. This action can be viewed as a benchmark date for the commercialization or monetization of the World Wide Web. With the monetization of the World Wide Web, there was an explosive growth in both the number of users and the number of websites. In addition to the pre-1985 more traditional uses of the World Wide Web as an informational, social chatting, and electronic mail resource, after the introduction of dotcom websites, millions of humans turned a good amount of their attention or devoted a good amount of their energies to buying and selling all kinds of products over the World Wide Web. Millions of humans began to surf or cruise the web.

Following is a list of some of the Internet's most popular and commonly used components:

Electronic mail (email) exchange using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Post Office Protocol (POP) protocols
Remote computer login or telnet using the TELNET protocol
Discussion groups and topical mailing lists using the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)
Text messaging using the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) protocol
File transfer (uploads and downloads) using the File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Access to all kinds of content using the GOPHER protocol
Access to all kinds of content (on the World Wide Web) using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

A TOUCH OF ORAL INTERNET HISTORY

Watch (History of the Internet)

Watch (40th Anniversary of the Net)

Watch (A Quick History of the Internet)

Watch (The Stuff of Genius: The World Wide Web)

A PEEK AT WHAT'S HAPPENING ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY AS OF 2012 WITH MORE ENHANCEMENTS AND INNOVATIONS TO FOLLOW IN THE COMING YEARS:

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Watch (What is a Chromebook?)

Watch (iPad Pro — Your next computer is not a computer — Apple)

Watch (Introducing Windows 11)

Watch (Introducing Apple Watch | Apple)

Watch (Desktop.com – connecting the dots of remote work)

Watch (Zoho)

Watch (Adobe Creative Cloud Overview)

Watch (What is AWS? | Amazon Web Services)

Watch (ZeroPC Introduction)

Watch (Welcome to Aereo!)

Watch (FastPencil)

Watch (Introducing SafetyPay)

Watch (What is Bitcoin?)

Watch (The Next Level of Home Security and Automation - AT&T Digital Life | AT&T)

Watch (MongoDB in 5 Minutes with Eliot Horowitz)

Watch (Introducing GPT-4)

Additional Links for the Information Superhighway:

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Intellectual Property Disclosures: All videos and songs (as well as many of the images) referenced or spotlighted throughout this website are the legal and intellectual properties of others. All content and opinions on this website (bruessard.com) are those of the author (Edward Bruessard) exclusively and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the contributors, creators, owners, and distributors of these referenced videos, songs, and images. The author holds no legal interest or financial stake in any of these referenced videos, songs, and images. The contributors, creators, owners, and distributors of these referenced videos, songs, and images played no role at all regarding the appearance of said videos, songs, and images throughout this website; they had no clue that this website would be spotlighting their works.