[Off-Topic] A View from the Past About the Internet

Sales on the Internet

Forewords

The real Cold War in the 60s wasn’t being fought in the field, with soldiers and planes, but in research laboratories, funded by the government, and universities were already equipped with the best computing resources available. It was thought that the ability to create and maintain technological advantages over the adversary would determine the winner of the conflict.

The idea of connecting these centers, aiming at the exchange of information, began to be developed. However, a determining factor was attributed to the choice of network technology that would enable the connection of the strategic centers: the information should continue to flow even under the worst conditions, such as a nuclear attack.

ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) and DoD (Department of Defense) were delegated the responsibility of developing the best alternative for integrating information centers.

A few years later, ARPA would change its name to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), starting a plan called the Internetting Project to investigate the possible forms of connection between packet-switched networks. As a result of this project and the studies of the INWG (InterNetwork Working Group), the two basic protocols of the Internet were developed and presented. In 1974, Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn presented IP (Internet Protocol) and TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). These two protocols specified how messages (files or commands) would be transferred between computers on the Internet.

Numbers

To understand the importance of the Internet in every sense — social, political, and financial — it’s necessary to see who surfs the Internet. We’ll base ourselves on the research of John Quarterman, an access provider, consultant, and publisher from Austin, Texas, who researches the composition of the Internet population in his Internet Demographic Survey.

One of the things Quarterman has been doing is defining several Internets according to the types of applications running on the servers and the activities of the users. The “core of the Internet” is made up of computers that offer interactive services like FTP, Telnet, or WWW applications. The “consumer Internet” includes people who use the interactive services offered by the core — for example, users browsing the World Wide Web. The total cyberspace, which he labels as the “matrix,” includes all users who exchange email with other users. These categories fit into one another: the matrix includes the consumer Internet, which includes the Core Internet.

One of the problems Quarterman has to face involves virtual hosts. An Internet access provider has to register domain names for users, but the addresses actually reside on the provider’s machines. This can lead to misunderstandings, making it seem that people have machines connected to the Internet. This group belongs to the consumer Internet category, and all the mail Quarterman sends to postmasters at various addresses is ultimately handled by one host.

“The problem of virtual hosts has grown enormously in the last year (1995),” said Quarterman. “You can access a Web site, there really is information there, and it really corresponds to the organization. It’s actually on a computer on the Internet, but it may be the same computer as other domains.”

The most recent survey, for 1995, was published in January 1996. Out of the universe of 45,091 domains, 2.9% (1,293) responded. In the world of statistics, more than 1,000 responses is a large number of data, and these responses represent entire organizations, not just users. In this survey, Quarterman estimates that there were 16.9 million users of the core Internet (more than double the previous year) and 26.4 million users of the consumer Internet (again double); 39 million users (a 50% increase) already had email. Quarterman attributes the increase to Internet users on consumer networks (America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, and others).

In the 1995 survey, Quarterman counted 45,000 machines connected to the Internet. The actual number of registered domains exceeded this number because not all registered domains are used, and some are domains on other networks, such as UUCP, where you can send mail, but you can’t use interactive Internet services.

The Web is hot, but FTP still beats browsing. Quarterman also notes that the use of the Windows operating system is declining, and that Macintoshes (despite using the Internet Protocol and not MacOS) and Unix machines are increasing their share of domain control.

The results are announced and posted on the MIDS Web site (which publishes the monthly magazines Matrix News and Matrix Maps Quarterly, both on paper and online, and sells maps and other information about Internet hosts, users, and other demographic data) at http://www.mids.org. “What we made available to survey respondents, and to the Internet as a whole almost a month ago, is a result of the responses for each question. We also manage to draw detail levels between individual responses (which are never revealed) and the summaries. That’s how we get some income.”

Speaking of Brazil, the Secretary of Informatics and Automation Policy of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ivan Moura Campos, says that Brazil boasts one of the most astonishing growth rates toward cyberspace — we are growing 50% per month. With that, we reached a population of 260 thousand cybernauts at the beginning of May this year. To give an idea, if the adoption rate continued at this speed, by the end of the year the number of Brazilian cybernauts would be 16 million. But the Secretary’s predictions, more realistic, estimate one million users at the turn of the year.

Advertising

After the microcomputer revolution in the 80s and the spread of computing with “a micro on every desk and in every home,” we had one of the greatest evolutions ever seen in history, where humanity evolved in 10 years what it hadn’t managed to evolve since the Middle Ages, entering the Information Age.

With microcomputers and the Internet, physical borders have been erased, in a place where “countries” and “oceans” no longer have meaning and where physical distances no longer make sense. Virtualization has evolved to such a point that a person living in a country like Brazil can already get to know and make friends with people from anywhere in the world, such as Australia, for example. Tools like Netscape Inc.’s CoolTalk (http://www.netscape.com), which replaces the telephone, or TimedVideo Grabber (http://www.avernus.com/~allan), which enables the transmission of real-time images using a camera, makes it possible for people to meet without ever actually having to meet in the “flesh and bone.”

And speaking of evolution, after 500 years of absolute reign of print media as a disseminator of information, it’s being rapidly replaced by digital publications on the World Wide Web, the part of the Internet that most catches attention today.

With pioneering works like Encyclopedia Britannica (http://www.eb.com), which was absolutely shaken after printed encyclopedias fell into total disuse after the emergence of digital encyclopedias like Microsoft’s Encarta (http://www.microsoft.com), and also of “yellow pages”-type search services like those offered by sites like Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com) or Lycos (http://www.lycos.com), they made the Internet also the largest data repository ever built, the best place for research you can find.

World-famous magazines like PC Magazine (http://www.pcmag.com) from Ziff Davis Publishing (http://www.ziff.com) or Playboy (http://www.playboy.com) already have their publications displayed and updated periodically on the WWW.

The World Wide Web or WWW was conceived to give a “face” to the Internet, enabling the editing of graphical sites as opposed to the hitherto text-based interface (something similar to the transition from DOS to Windows, for example). A new scripting language was created, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), and a specific protocol, HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). And for navigation through these pages, browsers were created, programs made to interpret HTML. Right from the start, two stood out: Netscape with its Netscape Navigator and SpyGlass with its Mosaic. Netscape became more widespread, and SpyGlass sold the Mosaic rights to Microsoft, which today distributes Netscape’s biggest competitor, Internet Explorer, in one of the largest software distribution campaigns ever seen.

The possibility of editing virtually everything that exists in print media quickly caught the world’s attention to the Internet. New concepts began to emerge such as online publishing. One of the most recent examples is about the Atlanta Olympics, where the computing work was in charge of IBM (http://www.ibm.com), which set up a grandiose scheme of machines and networks and information distribution via the Internet that can be checked on the Olympics homepage (http://www.atlanta.olympic.org), where the data are updated as soon as they are obtained. Thus, at the end of each game, the homepage can be updated and the whole world has access to it, not having to wait until the next day to read it in the newspapers.

Speaking of newspapers, they are not far behind, putting on the WWW much of their daily publications such as The Gate (http://sfgate.com), an Internet-based product of two newspapers from the West Coast of the United States, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner with a right to conference areas with discussion forums such as Community, Media, Sports, Movies, etc.

Agência Estado, which publishes famous newspapers like Estado de São Paulo, also already distributes its newspaper via internet (http://www.agestado.com.br) with the main headlines of the day and various information, including its classifieds and, in an Olympics period, with special areas for the sports in Atlanta.

Another concept that became famous with the Internet is online services such as the giants CompuServe and America Online, which serve people around the world and have allies like Netscape and Microsoft. This type of organization is based on “services” that include discussion forums; libraries with updated information; magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals; virtual stores that sell everything from CDs to clothes; leisure and business tips; and also services common to the Internet like email and the WWW.

In Brazil, such types of service have also started to spread, with emphasis on Folha de São Paulo and Grupo Abril, which launched, respectively, Universo Online and Brasil Online. Such Brazilian services are still experimental and free, with no projections regarding costs. For illustration, The New York Times charges USD 30.00 per month and America Online charges USD 9.95 for 5 hours or USD 19.95 for 20 hours.

Such services have very high billing mainly because of the current excitement of the world around the virtualization of services and the rental of digital space for companies interested in placing “virtual billboards” or even adding other services like digital stores on the main pages, since the number of people who travel through the digital lines every day is very large. To see this, just go to the Brasil Online page, for example, and come across advertising calls from companies like Sun or Credicard. These calls are links that lead to the homepages of the respective companies.

And speaking of advertising, someone must be making such pages and ads. These companies are specializing in designing specific and creative pages for a type of media that goes beyond the limitations of paper and enables things like Hypertext (words within a text that lead to other pages), Marquees (phrases that move on the line), music (through WAVE files or the new Real Audio technology), animations (via animated GIF images or using features of the Java language), or even totally three-dimensional environments (using VRML - Virtual Reality Markup Language technology) and much more. In this marketing niche are companies like Vivid Studio (http://www.vivid.com), which has clients like the giants Silicon Graphics and Microsoft, or Razorfish (http://www.razorfish.com), which designs for Time-Warner and Pepsi.

Commerce

The main point of friction when talking about digital commerce is security. The TCP/IP protocol is the starting point for the Internet, conceived as a universal protocol but that falls short on the security aspect, where, unlike its siblings IPX/SPX or NetBIOS, for example, it doesn’t have encrypted data transmission. Since it’s the standard data transmission protocol, it would have been convenient to stipulate a standard data security protocol as well. Since this doesn’t exist, the impasse is around companies fighting to develop the standard that would cause the initial surge toward the end of printed money and the development of digital credit.

One of the oldest is CyberCash (http://www.cybercash.com), about a year old. For now, the company only works with credit card services, but soon promises to offer monetary payment services. Currently, with a browser connected to the network, you can shop safely in virtual shopping malls. Through the SIPS (Secure Internet Payment Service) protocol, according to the company, it’s as easy as point and click. In this type of transaction, you buy as many cybercashes as desired and it’s debited from the credit card.

The CyberCash standard supports all types of credit cards. It uses the 768-bit RSA and 56-bit DES encryption standards. All transactions are authenticated with MDS and 768-bit RSA signatures. The first step for those interested is to download the free program the company offers. The CyberCash server is connected to the private networks of several banks. The company’s initial services include credit and debit cards and an electronic payment system. For the services, users pay a modest amount, comparable to the value of a stamp. For suppliers, the system represents savings on fees charged for credit card transactions, due to the risk that still exists in transactions by telephone and email.

In this type of development, there are also companies like DigiCash (http://www.digicash.com), with services centered on the First Digital Bank site (http://bank.digicash.com), using an e-cash system (real money converted into virtual money in virtual accounts). Visa (http://www.visa.com) (which is also a partner of Sony — http://www.sony.com — in developing a multifaceted environment of entertainment, information, and commercial transactions) and Microsoft own STT (Secure Transaction Technology), the standard that these two powerhouses want to become an electronic version of the credit card. Mastercard (http://www.mastercard.com) is partnered with IBM, Netscape, GTE, and CyberCash, with the SEPP (Secure Electronic Payment Protocol) standard. It’s an open protocol for secure online transactions.

Netscape develops the open security protocol SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and contributes to the development of the SSL interface of the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), a European consortium dedicated to creating a standard for the European Common Market — http://www.w3.org). About 50 companies from around the world are part of this consortium. The company will license the SSL technology to its partners for commercial use. The list of partners includes MCI (http://www.mci.com), Bank of America (http://www.bankamerica.com), Mastercard, First Data Corporation, Novell (http://www.novell.com), Digital (http://www.dec.com), and Silicon Graphics.

Practically all companies in the financial sector have been investing heavily in developing a platform that is secure and reliable enough for financial transactions of all levels of importance. Hackers aside, business via the Internet doesn’t differ much from those conducted outside it. That is, the best way to be free from problems is to trust the credibility of serious companies. It’s unlikely that anyone will want to compromise their good name by failing to deliver the merchandise on time or “negotiating” the credit card number.

In Brazil, Mappin (http://www.mappin.com.br) was the first large company to enter the computer-sales business. It’s also possible to choose sweets and pies at Confeitaria Brunella (http://www.ams.com/brunella) in São Paulo or make reservations at Marcellu’s Bar (http://www.marcellus-bar.com.br) in Rio de Janeiro. The consumer chooses the sweet or pie they want to buy through the photos and descriptions on Brunella’s homepage, then the shop calls to confirm the order and sends the merchandise. In the case of Marcellu’s Bar, the reservation is made by email.

If anyone is moving to the United States or simply needs to compare prices, they can consult For Sail By Owner Connection. It’s a site specialized in house sales, with photos and specifications. If you actually need to sell your house, you can also advertise on this page: http://www.cracker.com/byowner.

Thinking about travel, Cruisin (http://www.cracker.com/cruisin) is the first tourism agency specialized in cruises that serves exclusively via the Internet. But there are already many hotels and agencies on the network. Really, there are alternatives for all bank limits: from Ceará cashews for less than R$ 3.00 up to a house in Florida for USD 329,000. Today it’s virtually possible to buy anything on the Internet.

Afterwords

Created for military purposes, then expanded to academic circles, and finally reaching the general public, the Internet is walking in accelerated evolution, covering practically all sectors of society, where the foundations of what can be considered a virtual world are being built.

When the Internet evolves enough, new technologies will build the expected Information Super Highway, where, then, a truly worldwide network will be constituted, using not only computers in the way we know them but also any electronic equipment, such as set-top boxes (the replacements for VCRs and video-lasers).

In this next generation, “walking” will be wearing a virtual reality suit and visiting virtual locations with friends from other continents in a digital meeting. And this isn’t science fiction delusions: we are so close to it that such technologies are real and already exist — all that’s left is time to make them accessible and operational at the level of mass distribution.