The Past of the Information Highway
History and Definition
If you are wondering what information highway is all about, just think about the
Internet, which you should be familiar with. The Internet is where the information
highway started. Believe it or not, the Internet began as an experiment to test
the possibility of creating a disaster-proof national computer system (in the US)
where scientists and military personnel could share messages and data no matter
where they are. Then, it became to served the research and academic communities.
And lately, business people have been traversing the web. No matter who are using
the information highway, they have at least one thing in common, that is: They
search among the millions of pages of electronic data for the few bits that they
want or need.
And now, when we talk about the Internet, it has the following
definition:
"It is a loose collection of millions of computers at thousands of sites around
the world whose users can pass along information and share files no matter which
of those computers they are using."
So, the Internet, along with the other commercial online services, make up today's
information highway. To talk about Information Superhighway, here is a definition:
"Information Superhighway is part of the National Infrastructure of the US which
was designed to bring vast amount of data into our home and business."
So, if you want a taste of tomorrow's information highway, warm up your modem,
pickup an online service, and hop aboard.
Table of Contents
hwang@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
mokc@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
yen@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
Updated April 6, 1995