Joshua.R.Poulson@cyber.widener.edu
Joshua Poulson, Widener University Computing Services
de5@ornl.gov Dave Sill, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
bsmart@bsmart.tti.com Bob Smart, CitiCorp/TTI
emv@msen.com Ed Vielmetti, Vice President of MSEN
Craig E. Ward <cew@venera.isi.edu>
Craig Ward, USC/Information Sciences Institute (ISI)
Glee Willis <willis@unssun.nevada.edu>
Glee Willis, University of Nevada, Reno
Charles Yamasaki <chip@oshcomm.osha.gov>
Chip Yamasaki, OSHA
Network Basics
We are truly in an information society. Now more than ever, moving vast amounts of information quickly across great distances is one of our most pressing needs. From small one-person entrepreneurial efforts, to the largest of corporations, more and more professional people are discovering that the only way to be successful in the '90s and beyond is to realize that technology is advancing at a break-neck pace—-and they must somehow keep up. Likewise, researchers from all corners of the earth are finding that their work thrives in a networked environment. Immediate access to the work of colleagues and a "virtual" library of millions of volumes and thousands of papers affords them the ability to encorporate a body of knowledge heretofore unthinkable. Work groups can now conduct interactive conferences with each other, paying no heed to physical location—-the possibilities are endless.
You have at your fingertips the ability to talk in "real-time" with someone in Japan, send a 2,000-word short story to a group of people who will critique it for the sheer pleasure of doing so, see if a Macintosh sitting in a lab in Canada is turned on, and find out if someone happens to be sitting in front of their computer (logged on) in Australia, all inside of thirty minutes. No airline (or tardis, for that matter) could ever match that travel itinerary.