Feature: Take a Virtual Trip to MSU

An author and expert explains the Internet in plain language and suggests how MSU alumni can enter the Information Superhighway.

Just yesterday . . . I was in my office, connected to the Internet, checking to see if our business site on the Internet was operating correctly. It was, so I decided to look around on the Internet for a few minutes.

First, I connected with The Tonight Show's site and watched a movie clip on my computer of one of Jay Leno's jokes from the previous night's show (don't think it should be repeated here in prime time). Next, checking out a listing of businesses on the Internet (stored on a computer in England) I noticed an intriguing entry -- a company was providing package tours to Moscow to fly fighter jets like the Mig 29 -- prices were a bit steep though at $6,000 to $50,000! My next stop on the Internet was at the MSU Alumni Association's site (see Upfront, page 1).

It has information about Alumni Association groups, events, and programs. It also has a direct link to the full text of articles from the last three years of the MSU Alumni Magazine, which you can peruse while online. The Alumni Association also offers a link to MSU's Campus Wide Information System. Here I looked at quite a few pictures of the MSU campus, and viewed a spectacular online movie of Beaumont Tower from the air.

When I viewed those campus scenes as a student at MSU, the Internet was just getting started. It connected four campuses, and only a few hundred people had access to it. Now the Internet is a network of 45,000 networks, with close to 5 million computers, and access to some 50 million people world-wide. And, as big as it is, the number of connected networks is doubling in size each year!

My wife (Jill Harrison Ellsworth, '71) and I spend several hours a day on the Internet doing research for our books, and we're still amazed, on an ongoing basis, with the speed of growth and the massive amount of information that is available on the Internet. Here's how it's done (there's nothing up my sleeve). All of this can be quite hard to picture if you haven't been on the Internet before. So here is a very basic picture of how the Internet works:

• Groups of businesses, organizations, or universities often link their computers into a common network so that resources available at one location can be available to all others.
• These links may use normal or high speed phone lines, microwave broadcasting, satellite links, or any other technique that is available.
• These networks then can, in turn, link their entire network to the Internet and gain access to 45,000 other networks around the world.
• Now, files on millions of computers are easily available. By using appropriate software, a user on one computer can send files to another computer, or look at the directories of another computer and request files. On the surface this may not sound like an earth shaking ability, but through the use of some incredibly clever software systems this turns the Internet into a very powerful information storage, presentation, processing and communicating system.
• The 'files' can be full color pictures, sound files, and formatted data files from word processors, spreadsheets, drawing programs, and many others. Also remote databases can be searched and the results are immediately returned to you.
• By using a 'browser' program, most of these files can not only be received, but they are automatically displayed on your computer screen in the proper way for viewing.
• To use the Internet as an individual, you make contact with one of the computers on the network that offers individuals access.
• If you are a member of an organization or large company you might use a terminal wired to the company's main computer (provided it has been linked to the Internet).
• If you are an individual or small business you can gain access by using a modem connected between your computer and a normal phone jack in the wall. Then, with proper communications software you instruct your computer to dial up an Internet Access Provider.

What specifically you do at that point depends on which software you are using on your computer and what services are offered by the Internet Access Provider. Commercial services such as CompuServe, America On-Line (AOL), and Prodigy are generally not thought of as 'being on the Internet.' In the past their only contact with the Internet was via e-mail (you couldn't have used a browser and visited the sites mentioned earlier). Currently, however, these companies are increasingly adding more access for their users to the wealth of the Internet, but they are still preventing others on the Internet from using more than a small fraction of the resources provided by their users.

Pick a Subject, Any Subject . . . With information on the Internet covering tens of thousands of topics I'm not sure if it's easier to tell what's there, or what's not. Here's just the barest sampling: Business: Direct online purchasing is now available via 'virtual storefronts' and 'cybermalls' on the Internet. Some companies are also providing customer support and other information about their products.

Music: Extensive collections of lyrics, audio files of well known and obscure musicians, midi files, and background information.

Art: Pictures and background information from museums (including the Vatican and Louvre), and widely divergent art information and images from art schools and individuals can all be found.

Politics: Politicians are increasingly using the Internet during campaigns as a way to make announcements and offer position papers. The state of California in last November's election offered a site with background information on candidates and full text and background information on propositions to be voted on. On election day they updated vote counts district by district every 15 minutes on the Internet.

Education: Sites with activities for K-12 students are rapidly increasing in number and variety. In depth information for undergraduate and graduate university students is available in great diversity for most any college subject -- eg. chemistry, biology, law, geography, economics, and history.

News: General new, and news focused at various professions and disciplines is available daily from many sources on the Internet. These, combined with the electronic equivalent of a clipping service can help keep you informed on even the most obscure of topics.

Reading: Full texts of hundreds of books are available online. Also, many traditional paper based newspapers and magazines (eg Time magazine) are now providing portions of their magazines, or creating different online versions of their publications.

Government: Many cities and states now have Internet sites. The State of Texas, for example, has information from many of its agencies, and this year is placing full text of all proposed bills on the Internet (incidentally, they distributed to all the legislators laptop computers to access the system with). In addition to information on thousands of subjects, there are close to 15,000 topical discussion groups, each with several sub-topic conversations being carried on at the same time. If you are thinking of getting on the Internet, your timing is perfect:

First--Web browsers (originally designed for use with one large part of the Internet--the World Wide Web), that can gain access to almost all of the resources on the Internet, are now readily available for most popular computer systems. These have made the Internet dramatically easier to use. In the recent past you had to learn how to use eight to 10 different Internet systems, many of which required remembering, and typing in, many commands. Now you only need to learn how to use one graphically oriented, 'point and click' program.