Internet-based Information Systems:The Internet

2.1 The Internet

Most IS development methodologies do not address the Internet in specific terms. This might be because the Internet is still relatively new for mainstream IS development, or that the methodology authors are only just beginning to catch up. In this chapter we provide a brief history of the Internet and how it works and then discuss information systems development in the context of the Internet. There are many histories of the Internet, but a few words here will provide some background and context. In a technological sense the Internet is relatively simple and obvious extension to computer networking. From a social and organizational perspective, however, it is a remarkable phenomenon, recent 'dotcom' failures and technology stock disaffection notwithstanding.

2.1.1 A brief history

In the Cold War of the 1950s and 60s, the US poured money into research in radar, communications, and computers (Hobbes, 2002). The US was concerned by the signs of Russian superiority in technology, as illustrated by the Sputnik space missions. New agencies were created to promote advances in science and technology. One of these was the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which was formed in 1958 as part of the US Department of Defense (DoD). ARPA distributed funds to research institutes with one of the significant beneficiaries being MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). MIT graduates worked for new technology companies, which were being set up close to the MIT campus and one of the companies, Bolt, Barenek &

Newman (BBN), helped develop ARPAnet in the late 60s. ARPAnet was deigned using packet-switching technology with the aim of being able to survive the loss of network nodes in a nuclear war. In 1969 four computers were networked using ARPAnet. By 1972 there were 40 network points and the need for common standards and protocols was recognized, leading to a file transfer protocol (FTP) in 1973 and transmission control protocol (TCP) in 1974. In 1976 Queen Elizabeth II sent out an email, but by the end of the 1970s the ARPAnet was still used mainly by academic institutions around the world.

From ARPAnet to the Internet

In 1982 the transmission control protocol (TCP) and the Internet protocol (IP), collectively known as TCP/IP, were adopted by ARP Anet – the Internet had arrived. The first name server was developed at the University of Wisconsin in 1983, which allowed messages to be sent without having to know the exact address of the recipient machine. In 1985 the domain name system (DNS) was introduced; the first domain name was symbolics.com with universities (for example, purdue.edu) and not-for-profit organizations (for example, mitre.org) following quickly on. In 1986, the NSF (National Science Foundation) made Internet support available to the research community via the NSFNET backbone. In 1989 there were 100,000 hosts connected to NFSNET and in 1990 the ageing ARPAnet was switched off. The growth in network connections was fuelled by the widespread adoption of developments in personal computers (Apple and IBM), networkable Sun servers and workstations, and networking infrastructure from Cisco and the Ethernet local area network pioneered by Bob Metcalfe.

Internet browser wars

Tim Berners-Lee was working at CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) in Switzerland in 1991 and wanted to be able to share documents and information easily over the Internet. Berners-Lee named the project the worldwide web (WWW). CERN released a line-driven browser for the WWW and distributed hypermedia had arrived. Use of a line-by-line browser was not user-friendly, but in 1992 Marc Andreessen, an undergraduate at the University of Illinois, saw the potential of the worldwide web and, together with colleagues, developed the first graphical browser, Mosaic. Jim Clark saw the value of the Mosaic browser and lured the original Mosaic developers away from Illinois to California, to work for a start-up that would later become Netscape. Clark's new browser was named Mozilla.

It was not until 1995 that Microsoft supplied Internet Explorer. Before 1995, the Internet was not licenced for commercial organizations seeking to make profits. Once the rules were changed, Microsoft entered the market and

businesses started thinking about getting a web site. By 1996 the browser wars were in full swing as Netscape and Microsoft battled it out for dominance. Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer in with the Windows operating systems and made quick and large inroads into Netscape's dominance of the browser market. As most users had Microsoft Windows on their PCs and Internet Explorer was delivered free, Netscape's revenue earning opportunities from its browser disappeared. However, differences in implementation have led to browser incompatibilities and the need for developers to create two versions of web pages to cater for Internet Explorer and Netscape – so much for common standards! In 1998 Microsoft was taken to court after allegations of anti-trust violations, but it was too late for Netscape, whose original 90% share of the market had been shredded by Microsoft. In early 2000 Microsoft had 80% of the browser market share. By late 2001 Netscape had given up the browser battle, with Jim Bankoff (President, Netscape) announcing that Netscape would focus on being a content hub for Time Warner and that by 2002 Netscape would not be primarily known as a browser company. Netscape also saw inroads into its market share by the Norwegian developer of the Opera browser.

By the end of the 20th century, exponential growth of the worldwide web (by far the most heavily used service on the Internet) had led to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) no longer asking in its annual survey of 2000 if a company had a web site – more than 95% already did.

2.1.2 Internet statistics

As of 1 Jan 2000 there were 56.2 million computers connected, with 97 million users in the US (38% penetration) and 14 million users in the UK (25% penetration) (Forrester, 2001). The forecast for 2006 is that there will be 208 million users in the US (78% penetration) and 39 million users in the UK (68% penetration). In the early 1990s the typical Internet user was a young male with high technical knowledge; in 2000 there were various socio-economic groups with differing levels of technical knowledge, including business people, families, teenagers, and 'Golden Agers' (mature and retired people with time on their hands and disposable income to play the stock market).

Internet users are accessing the net anytime/anywhere, from home, office, and on the move. The devices they use to access the net include desktop computers, laptops, televisions, mobile telephones, and personal digital assistants. By 2006 there will be 0.92 billion Internet users using 549 million Internet PCs, 134 million Internet-enabled TVs, 705 million micro-browser devices, 161 million 'other' devices (for example, games consoles such as Sony's PlayStation). In terms of commerce conducted on the Internet, the $10 billion in 1997 grew to $250 billion in 2000 and is predicted to reach $2.7 trillion by 2005. Even if these forecasts do not prove 100% accurate, the signs are that the Internet will continue to be big business, and particularly so in a mobile context.