THE INTERNET & THE INFORMATION HIGHWAY
This research reviews and examines the concepts and reality of the ôInternet and the Information Highwayö in relation to their value to business and personal users. The primary focus is on the competitive advantages accruing to business firms from the effective use of the ôInternet and the Information Highwayö.
Defining the Technology and Reviewing Its Implementation
The Internet is a network of networks. The Internet structure links the many networks, and it enables users on one network to access users on another network. The Information Highway is not so easily defined. To some people, the Internet Highway does not yet exist in reality. In this conception, the Internet Highway is a vast interconnected structure of fiber-optic lines that provides super high-speed communications between and among users. In this conception, the Information Highway can be developed on regional, national, and international levels. To other people, the Information Highway already exists in the form of the World Wide Web (WWW), which is one of the networks that comprise the Internet. Business firms, academic organizations, governments, non-profit organizations, and individuals create and maintain Sites (Web pages) on the WWW that provide a vast array of information that is accessible to users of the WWW. While vast fiber-optic networks are in various stages of development in many parts of the world, the WWW is a dynamic Information Highway in its own right. Further, the probability is that most of the fiber-optic networks will eventually become parts of the Internet backbone networks that support the WWW (Yi, 2002).
The Internet was an important development in the evolution of information technology (IT). The Internet, however, is just the latest development in the long continuum of information technology development (Tarr, 2000).
Gromov (1997) traced the development of the Internet throug...