Lets do this simply

Technological

In reality there is no such thing as 'The Internet'.

It is based on computers that are connected usually by cable, satellite or wireless telemetry so they can a) receive, b) re-route and c) transmit data. Then there are others that just a) transmit and b) send and a few computers that just receive.

In the case of the Internet computers are polite to each other and use a common protocol called the Internet Protocol (IP).

This means that when information is sent from one computer to another it has proper manners.

These manners are in the form of digital greetings at the beginning of small digital packets of information and a proper farewell at the end. Sometimes the greeting is such that the computer politely sends it off to a neighbour and sometimes it recognises it has come to stay. It is called packet switching.

Packet switching is the most used technology for both data and voice communication worldwide. It is relatively new and replaced the old telephone type of communication which was based on the idea of circuits (creating a single end to end connection between sender and receiver like an old fashioned telephone operator 'connecting you'). This means that a dedicated circuit is tied up for the duration of the call and communication is only possible with the single party on the other end of the circuit.

With packet switching, a system could use one communication link to communicate with more than one machine by assembling data into packets. Not only could the link be shared (much as a single person post letters to different destinations), but each packet could be routed independently of other packets.

The greeting description on each packet helps the receiving computer to decide what to do with it.

There are a lot of Internet applications that are not important to public relations. Then there are some that are familiar. Examples of Internet protocols you may have heard about include packets of information with a greeting that could be a telephone message (Voice over Internet Protocol - VoIP), or email (Internet Message Access Protocol), a Web page ( using HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol), File transfer (File Transfer Protocol). There is almost no point in knowing about this stuff except to realise that there are different 'protocols' that seem to offer the same thing on computers but that are really quite different. For example: Email is not the Web.

Because all of this stuff is based on packets of information and 'packet switching' it can be split up and sent by different routes and computers and re-assembled when it arrives at its destination.

After leaving CERN in 1980 to work at John Poole's Image Computer Systems Ltd., Tim Berners-Lee returned in 1984 as a fellow. In 1989, CERN was the largest Internet node in Europe, and Berners-Lee saw an opportunity to join hypertext with the Internet: "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and — ta-da! — the World Wide Web.

Social

Global, Connected, Knowledge, Interactivity, Commercial, 'Social Capital' are all things associated with the Internet.

In less than 20 years we have become a dependant society.

The predictions of a decade ago have happened.

We want access to your corporate information, to your plans and strategies, your best thinking, your genuine knowledge. We will not settle for the 4-color brochure, for web sites chock-a-block with eye candy but lacking any substance.

On average, we can anticipate that nearly half of the population is spending 23 hours online each week of which under three hours are spend on banking and buying stuff.

Our challenge is to be able to capture the interest of these people for the other seven hours they are online each day as they multi-tasking watching TV, listening to iPods and and texting their friends.


Economic

Early pioneers in commercial applications like Amazon.com showed the way. Despite the dot com bubble bursting, retailing online has flourished.

Tesco takes £2.5 million every day on-line.

Jennifer Risi, executive vice president of Weber Shandwick's Global Strategic Media Group explains, "The genesis of the Creativity Economy is relatively easy to trace. The twin forces of globalization and easily accessible information, thanks in large part to the Internet, means that knowledge has become a commodity. Thanks to advances in manufacturing and productivity across virtually every sector, once-vital business factors such as quality, price and product are now easily duplicated across the world. Since product innovation is much harder to achieve, leading companies are coming to view intangibles such as creativity and innovation in business processes as paramount to future success."

Another car reduces productivity another Skype user increases it.


Politics

Erm... truth in politics?

There is even more of this stuff here.


NEXT


Your task is to comment here: