Internet

A system of computer networks that interconnects worldwide and uses a set of tele communication protocols called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). Together, these protocols provide for a virtual connection that allows for the transferring and forwarding of information, via packets of data, to intended locations. Social and behavioral scientists rely heavily on the Internet as a tool for gathering both primary and secondary data. Potential uses include obtaining raw data for analysis, finding information about a particular theory or methodology to be used in a research project, or reviewing literature to put new research in context. The study of the impact of the Internet itself is a prevalent research topic in all reaches of these disciplines.

The predecessor to the Internet was conceived in the late 1960s by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a unit of the U.S. Defense Department. The original network, Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), was designed to support communication among military computers, defense department laboratories, and selected university departments. Over the next two decades, the system proved to be useful to computer science departments, major industrial laboratories, and a growing number of departments in academia.

Colloquially, the terms World Wide Web and Internet are often mistakenly interchanged. Though the Web is the most widely used part and largest generator of traffic on the Internet, it is but one service of the Internet. The most salient characteristic of the Web is the use of hypertext, a virtual-network-based information system that allows users to browse a variety of linked Internet resources organized by graphics-oriented pages.

The Web is not the equivalent of the Internet but rather uses the Internet as its transport mechanism. Many people use the term Internet as a medium—for example, “I found the article on the Internet.” In essence, they did find the article via the Internet but, more accurately and specifically, on the World Wide Web. Other services of the Internet include e-mail, remote access, file sharing, streaming media, and voice telephony.

In general, Internet, used with an initial capital letter, refers to the worldwide, publicly available IP Internet, while internet, with a lowercase initial letter, can refer to any interconnected set of distinct networks that can exist between any two remote locations. The term intranet is generally used for private networks.

In the early years of its existence, the Internet was supported by the U.S. Government but now depends largely on support from commercial interests. The overall responsibility for managing IP addresses and domain names (the unique name that identifies an Internet network system or Web site) rests with the [Page 269]Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). For more information, see Hafner and Lyon (1998).