Posted by Martin Orr on
Friday, 17 February 2006 at 13:50
IP stands for the Internet Protocol, the system by which data on the Internet finds its destination. Every computer or other device connected to the Internet is given an IP address, a series of numbers which identify where the computer is. Whenever a message (called a packet) is sent from one computer to another, it is given to the IP system along with the address it has to be sent to, then passed from one router to another until it arrives. An important point is that IP doesn't care what is in the packet - that is determined by other systems, and it could be a part of an email, a Web page, a downloaded file or an action in an online game.
The Internet is not by any means the only system that needs to pass data between many different devices: for example the telephone network is a far older and almost completely separate system; on a much smaller scale, the different alarms in a building security system need to talk to each other. This is where the versatility of IP which I mentioned above comes into play: by using the existing IP network, people setting up a new communication system avoid needing their own cables and having to design a routing mechanism. You may have heard of VOIP (Voice-over-IP) which sends telephone calls through IP packets across the Internet. And one surprising place where IP is taking over is in controlling the heating systems in large buildings.
This isn't really what I sat down and intended to write, but hopefully it is helpful in explaining what IP is, and why you may hear people get excited about it.
--
Martin
Tags
internet, phone, techexplain
Posted by Martin Orr on
Wednesday, 25 January 2006 at 15:11
I want to muse about the difference between the Internet and the printing press. These may be compared on the grounds that they each led to a major reduction in the cost of distributing information, and consequently to a massive increase in the spread of information. This is certainly true, but I suggest that they affected the distribution of information in fundamentally different ways. Prior to the development of movable type in Europe in the 15th century, all written documents were in the form of manuscripts. Production and use of these was of course restricted to those who could read and write, but other than that anyone who possesed a manuscript could create a new copy at the same cost.
The dominance of printing changed this completely: copying a document required ownership of a press and skill in typesetting. This created the publisher, who possessed this equipment and was able to cheaply mass produce copies of a document.
In addition, each copy of a document was not enough to create a new copy: you had to create a master block of type to print from.
The use of electronic media on the other hand flattens the cost of copying. Any electronic copy of a document is equivalent, in that it can be used as the basis of a new copy without any alteration in quality, and the equipment for copying is readily available and in many cases the same as the equipment for using the document (literacy in the manuscript era; a computer today).
In conclusion, the rise of digital media and the Internet removes the need for the publisher; or perhaps it would be better to say that it turns everyone into a publisher. Of course publishers have not in fact disappeared from the Internet; this may be because we have not yet fully adjusted, or there may be other reasons for their continued existence.
--
Martin
Tags
internet, ipr, printingpress