The Internet and You.

"The Internet", a virtual place where data packets cross the globe in a blink of an eye providing seamless communication between us. It is a big word in a small world… it has made the world smaller in its own way. We are different in the way we look at the internet. A big network made up of so many cables, routers, servers, client computers, wave links, and you name it, or simply a source of information, or another way of communication and social relations, or a good place to find people to rob, or a tremendous place where so many data is exchanged in seconds carried by IP data packets through TCP/IP suite of protocols, or… why don't you tell us what you think of the internet?

We all must be grateful to Sputnik. Well, no it was not a person who invented the internet nor was it a research center that developed it. It is a Soviet Union Satellite that was launched in the fifties. Because The Soviet Union launched Sputnik, America had to find a good system of communication that can stand still any attack and that was the start of ARPANET, which became the internet. ARPA is Advanced Research Projects Agency and it was created to sponsor research at universities and corporations in strategically important areas. NSF (National Science Foundation) developed a high-speed, long-distance communications network and only 20 years ago this network became public and in few years in the beginning of the 90's it became so popular. The word "Internet" comes from "Inter-Networking", which basically means so many networks connected together.

V4 to V6, it is not an engine, it is the IP addresses. An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique complex number that identifies every device connected to the internet. Also websites have IP addresses and a domain name is basically a readable text that corresponds to an IP address that machines understand. The current IP address scheme is version four. There is only 10% left of IPv4 numbers and is expected to run out after 3 years in 2011. A domain name like www.google.com has the following IP address 74.125.43.147, this means that www.google.com is resolved to 74.125.43.147 and if you type this IP address in your browser address bar, it will take you to google.com. An example of IPv6 address is: 3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf. I told you… it is really complex.

Guess what? Times Magazine selected "You" as person of the year 2006. "It's a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. It's about the cosmic compendium of knowledge Wikipedia and the million-channel people's network YouTube and the online metropolis MySpace. It's about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes". Read more.

Are you a member of a Cyber-Community? Surely you are. A cyber community is a virtual place in which the communication between a group of individuals (like yourself) develops to a community structure, with no geographical boundaries or time limits, moving beyond the basic exchange of information to the exchange of shared goods of value.

If we are to go back in time 5 years, what would you do? Well, I hope that we go back to start my own social networking website that would be worth billions by today! Facebook.com is a good example.

Using the internet gives a different feeling since it is not limited by place or time and what makes it different is that it is very interest-driven and that is why it causes flow state. Flow state is defined as "the state of mind where interaction with the internet becomes a unified movement from one site or event to the next with little or no awareness of distraction, outside influences or irrelevant thoughts". What makes flow state important for marketers is that any message conveyed to the users engaged in flow state is more likely create awareness and influence their behavior when making decisions related to different products.

The internet is not the end; it is the start of different networks yet to come. Technologies are emerging and evolving around people. Convergence in technology has already changed communication producing new services, affecting businesses and transforming our society into a different one, where you play a role to define how it does.

New challenges and new rules… It is your game.