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THE INTERNET AND CHANGES IN COMMUNICATION

The fundamental change in communication methods brought about by the Internet is not a whole lot different from the change brought about approximately a century before by the invention of the telephone.  With the invention of the telephone, individuals could suddenly communicate across the world with each other in real time.  The changes brought about by that technology reached throughout society.   Today, we see many of the same types of changes occurring because of advances in information and computer technology.  Low-cost and readily available communication technology has not only allowed casual communication to occur between people in new ways (e.g., e-mail, chat and instant messaging sessions, web-based video conferencing, etc.), but also permitted business to be conducted across greater distances in different and more efficient ways.   For example, at-home consumers can use the Internet to comparison shop and pay for products on-line from merchants around the world—seeing real-time prices and inventory and not having to wait on printed, mail-out catalogs; that may not accurately present true prices and inventory and requiring phone or mail-in orders.  As evident in today’s society and business world alike, the Internet has further opened new doors to communication, information access, and methods of doing and conducting business.

Not only does the telephone system provide an analogous model for influence that the Internet has had on access to information and the ability to communicate with others across great distances, but it also provides an rudimentary example of how the Internet works and what is required to get onto the “net.”  For one to have an operable telephone, that is one capable of making and receiving calls, it needs to be hooked to the telephone “network” and have a telephone “number.”  Telephone numbers are codes designed to tell the telephone communications equipment where the particular telephone unit that has been assigned a number is located.  A person needing to reach another person via the telephone system needs little more than a telephone from which to place a call and the telephone number of the particular unit of the person with which he/she wishes to communicate. The key to this communication, however, is that the telephones on both ends of the communication must be hooked together through a network of wires, switches, relays, and communication machinery.

The Internet is simply a network of computers—all hooked together through a common set of wires, switches, relays, and communication machinery.  To access information on the Internet, a person simply needs a computer hooked to the World Wide Web and the “number” (i.e., a web address) of the computer containing the information of interest.  Rather than talking to a person on the other end of an Internet call, the person making the call sees the contents of a computer directory or subdirectory.  The contents are computer files that are viewable with Internet browser software.

from The Editor in Chief: A Management Guide for Magazine Editors (2nd edition)

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