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INTRODUCTION |
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WHAT IS THIS WEB SITE? This web site is here to teach about access to the Internet. Specifically, it covers the historical and economic aspects. To learn more about who made the site and why, go to the "About the Authors" page. |
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WHAT WAS THE MOTIVATION FOR THIS WEB SITE? Recently, with the amazing success of the World Wide Web, there has been an exponential growth in the number of people using the Internet. Over the course of just twenty years, the web has grown from a user base of a few thousand to tens of millions. The unprecedented ease of access to information and the fact that the Internet has proven to be a means of communication, entertainment and commerce is causing users to become part of the frenzy by the millions. Granted that an arguably vast potential is predicted for the internet, it is a bit disconcerting to know that the government has left the InternetŐs proliferation pretty much to its own mechanisms. This is all the more disturbing considering the internet was started as a government project. The aparent lack of action on the part of the govenment has necessitated that we examine the economic issues that affect the demographics of internet access. While it might not be necessary for the government to interfere legally or economically, it is important that everyone should be aware of the potential issues surrounding internet access. The fundamental questions that arises is: Do the benefits of the internet justify any actions on the part of the government to ensure equality of access? In this website, we have tried to present and qualitatively examine the issues that surround these questions and also illustrate some of the background knowledge that such an issue demands. Much of the effort will be spent on understanding the issues that lead to these questions, rather than a clearly decisive answer. |
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JOHN LeFLOHIC MARCH 16, 1998 |