h a broader consideration of the development of information technology than the high-tech developments of the past two decades. Gromov (1997) dealt not only with the actual development of the Internet and the WWW, but also discussed the developments in areas beyond the field of communications that provided the motivations for the development of technological advances in IT.
The earliest electronic communications established links between North America and Europe. These links include undersea telephone cables, in the nineteenth century, followed by the Advanced Research Project Agency net (ARAPNET), and the concept of a global information infrastructure in the twentieth century (Gromov, 1997).
The development of the Internet occurred within the context of the CERN (Centre European pour la Recherche Nucleaire) project. Following the initial development of the Internet, there was the development of the technology that enabled the development of the WWW facet of the Internet (Gromov, 1997).
The development and refinement of hypertext provided the basis for Web communications. The applications of hypertext in Web applications made the WWW useful (Gromov, 1997).
The development of the Xanadu system provided a means for the network sale of documents that provides royalties on a by byte basis. This system, should it become widely accepted, could change the face of publishing around the globe (Gromov, 1997).
Viewing the development of the Internet as a progression in the development of an information system (that began with the linking of North America and Europe with the Atlantic cable in 1858) places the development of the Internet in perspective. This perspective enables one to speculate on future developments in information systems technology that will render the Internet as obsolete at some future time as the Atlantic cable is obsolete today (Yi, 2002).
The Atlantic cable of 1858 was established to carry instantaneo...