INTERNET AS AN INFORMATION SYSTEM



Internet as an Information System

Internet as an Information System

Introduction

The Journal of Business Research described the Internet in 2004, story as:

"... The chain of networks that is generally the easiest and cheapest way of business processes to communicate electronically with the outside world." (Sharma and Sheth, 2004, 696-702).

This is however, a corporation's point of view. From a user's point of view, You can reach anywhere without paying extra for distance. You can search for and find an incredible variety of things and you can bring what you find back to your desktop, whether at work or at home.

One puzzling aspect of the Internet is that no one owns it and it has no formal management organization. As a creation of the "Defense Department" (USA) for sharing research data, this lack of centralization was purposeful, to make it less vulnerable to wartime or terrorist attacks. To join the Internet, an existing network needs only to pay a small registration fee and agree to certain standards. Each organization pays for its own networks. Regional Internet companies have been established to which member networks forward all transmissions (Lai and Yang, 2006, 295-304).

The Internet, in its broadest meaning, includes individuals, groups, organizations, grade schools, universities, commercial services, companies, governments, and free nets. "Being on the Internet" means having access to all of the main Internet systems such as FTP, Gopher, Telnet, e-mail, and the World Wide Web. There are many commercial Internet access providers who offer access to all of those systems. For the most part, communication over the Internet is in English, although many international servers offer dual language interfaces (Cheng and Warner, 2005).

The Internet is based on client/server technology. All the data, including e-mail messages, databases and Web sites, are stored on servers. Servers dedicated to the Internet or even to specific Internet functions are the heart of the information on the Net. The value of the Internet lies precisely in its ability to easily and inexpensively connect so many diverse people from so many places all over the globe. Anyone who has an Internet address can log onto a computer and reach virtually every other computer on the network, regardless of location, computer type, or operating system.

Information retrieval is a second basic Internet function. Many hundreds of library catalogues are on-line through the Internet. Users are able to search many thousands of databases that have been opened to the public by corporations, governments, and nonprofit organizations. Individuals and organizations can gather information on almost any conceivable topic stored in these databases and libraries.

Internet Benefits to Organization

The paper holding the positions of "National Administration & Personnel Manager", and "National Leasing & Installment Manager" in UNITED ARAB MOTORS CO. (UAM), the sole distributor of Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, having it's head office in Riyadh and ten branches all over the Kingdom. UAM has always been keen to develop modern information technology. Now UAM is using and trying to maximize ...