UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 4, Page TT-1
September 21, 1995
TechTalk
High speed information from the Internet

     It began simply enough. You might have seen one in a national
newspaper or news magazine occasionally.
     Now, they're everywhere. One catches your attention on a
billboard by I-95. There's one at the bottom of the TV screen. There's
one printed in the business section of the newspaper; another's in the
entertainment section. You turn on the radio. Your favorite station
tells you about the one it has.
     What are they? URLs, Uniform Resource Locators-the addresses for
information on the World Wide Web.
     This special section about the Internet and the World Wide Web
(the Web) will help you understand more about these electronic
information resources, including how URLs guide you through the
Internet's winding roads.

What is the Internet?
     Simply put, the Internet is the largest computer network in the
world. It is not a monolithic entity; rather, it is a distributed
"network of computer networks," allowing people all over the globe to
share information with each other.  Current estimates are that over 40
million people can see the information stored on more than 6 million
computers!
     By now, most members of the University community have made a
foray onto the Internet. Perhaps e-mail to a daughter at Arizona State
University. Perhaps using Gopher to burrow to some information about
the pests eating the backyard tomato plants. Perhaps using Netscape to
research a new car purchase.

What can you do on the Internet?
     There are three kinds of activities:

1.  You can communicate directly with other people using e-mail,
mailing lists, electronic bulletin boards and other programs.

2.  You can log in to remote computers from your desktop system or
from your account on the University's central system.

3.  You can store and retrieve information. That is, you can put
information that may interest others on line, and you can find
information others have put on line.

     The Internet tools most frequently used for these tasks are FTP
(file transfer), Gopher (a menu-based interface to information stored
on the Internet) and Web browsers. The Web is the hottest, easiest way
to access information others have stored; it also makes it easier for
people and institutions to "publish" information widely.

How does the World Wide Web fit in?
     The Web is the easiest way to tap into the resources on the
Internet. Its use is almost solely responsible for the meteoric growth
in Internet traffic over the past two years. Web browsers allow you to
search information resources faster than could be imagined just three
years ago.
     The Web is a distributed information system. It consists of two
parts: a server program and a client program. The server program
resides on a remote computer and stores information. The client
program, called a "browser," resides either on a central computing
system (like Strauss) or on a personal computer (PC). The browser
program displays the information as you move from server to server.
     Unlike older information-retrieval programs such as Gopher and
FTP, Web browsers are interactive. You use either your mouse or your
Tab and Enter keys to move between highlighted text and graphics that,
in turn, lead you to other related information sources. The computer
buzzword for this human-computer interaction is "hypermedia."
     Graphical, user-friendly hypermedia make it easier for people to
find information than have any other electronic research tools to
date. Further, Web browsers such as Netscape or Mosaic allow you to
view text and graphics together in the same document. It is even
possible to play video clips, sound clips and to download files-all
from the same program.
     The Web's appeal is far-reaching. The combination of multimedia
and ease of use have made the Web a resource that has brought people
clamoring for net access.
     The Web empowers people to share information. Of all the
information storage and retrieval resources available, the Web has
proved to be the easiest for information providers to use. The Web
takes advantage of the distributed nature of the Internet; setting up
a Web server or getting an account on a Web server has become easier
and easier.

What about at Delaware?
     U-Discover!, the University's campus-wide information system,
includes information stored on a central Gopher server, a central Web
server and a growing number of departmental Web servers. During August
alone, the information on the University's "home page," the starting
place for exploring
U-Discover!, was used more than 75,000 times.
     On campus, students can view transcript, grade, schedule and
other information over the campus network. Researchers are setting up
Web documents to share and collect information. Faculty are setting up
Web areas to make certain their students have immediate access to
course materials.
     Many University departments have also found that U-Discover!
speeds information off campus. For example, the Admissions Office uses
the Web to tell potential students about the University, the
Admissions Viewbook is on line and the University accepts applications
on line.