Convergence Of Internet With Other Technologies Essay

, Research Paper

Convergence of Internet with Other Technologies

The Internet is a significant part of our everyday life. Ever since it was invented by the Department of Defense while the Cold Wars were still raging, during the 1970.s, it had been advancing dramatically in its importance in our society (The Dynamics of Mass Communication, by Joseph R. Dominick, p.326-327). The advantages of the Internet, which made it popular, are countless. It provides users easy and inexpensive access, allows users to communicate with one another simultaneously regardless of the distance, and contains updated retrievable information on almost everything, if not all, and its amazing transmission speed is also a plus. There are no physical limits to its growth. Unlike real estate or paper, computing power and computer storage is inexpensive. There are an infinite number of bits in the universe and an almost endless hunger for valuable information and knowledge. As more and more people continue to enjoy the Web and find it worthy of their attention, the Web will continue to grow at its frantic pace. Thus it has a tremendous impact on current technologies and can potentially transform institutions such as schools, business transactions, neighborhoods and cities, government, public services and religion.

Technology keeps improving as time goes on. New products are invented every day to enrich our live style. As the usage of the Internet increases, more new products are made Internet compatible to save Internet users time and hassle. Although cellular phones have already made it easy for people to communicate with one another, engineers had taken it an extra step further. They now come with such function that the users are able to send and receive e-mails with a few simple touches on the keypad of the cellular phone. Pacific Bell is one of the wireless carriers that provide such handy option. Should the sender want to get a message across to any e-mail account, he would only enter the destination e-mail address (username@domainname) followed by a space, type in the message, then select SEND and enter 121 to have the wireless system to route the message to the internet as an e-mail to the address provided. The message is then sent to the designated email address. Anyone with Internet access has the ability to send an e-mail to the cellular customer as well. He can simply type in the cellular customer.s username as the address and the message will show up across the screen of the cellular phone without interruption (Brochure, 1999 Pacific Bell Wireless, LLC). Pacific Bell is only one of the thousands of businesses that provide advanced technology as such. Another one is V-ONE. V-ONE provides paging services that are Internet compatible as well. The procedures are similar to that of a cellular phone listed above. To secure the clients. privacy, this carrier verifies that the sender.s and recipient.s Personal Identification Number, PIN for short, are valid, by checking the PIN against an authentication database. If the PIN does not belong to a registered user on the system, then the message is discarded; invalid PINs result in automatic message deletion (http://www.v-one.com/airsmartgate.htm). Electronic meetings are made possible by a new type of computer software program, groupware. Groupware is a term used to describe the multitude of software programs that have developed to facilitate group interaction and decision making. Other applications of groupware are videoconferencing group meetings, disseminating presentations, augmenting face-to-face customer visits and even conducting preliminary interviews of job candidates. In 1995, more than 40 percent of the largest companies in the United States used video-conferencing (Fundamentals of Management, by Stephen P. Robbins and David A. De Cenzo, p.177). Videoconferencing, bringing people together electronically, rather than physically, saves time and eliminates travel expenses. These are just a few of the latest technology made specifically along with the usage of the Internet.

With the growth of the Internet usage, many institutions have upgraded their systems to attract more customers or clients who are into the Internet. This is taking place everyday. Some preschools have digital video cameras set up inside classrooms. The pictures are then uploaded into the school.s home page. This allows parents to watch over their children on the Internet since everything taking place inside the classroom is captured by the video camera. Parents may observe their children.s behavior, and ensure the safety of the school as well. Colleges and universities are taking advantage of this new technology as well. Many of them are posting their college catalogues on the Internet to attract prospective students worldwide. Distance education, which is available at many universities and colleges, is becoming more widespread. Students are required to have access to the World Wide Web in order to sign up for these online courses. Classes of this type grant more freedom to their students since there is no set time for lectures. Students are able to access their learning material over the Internet at their will at anytime convenient to them. This is a great opportunity for many working students to better manage their time. If they have questions in regards to the lessons, they can simply e-mail the professor, and responses will be made then. Most college st