Net attracts millions of new users every year

Free for all: This is the power of networked intelligence. The Internet does not need any particularly smart computers to run the show, just a lot of dumb, but fast ones that know how to work together. The secret of its success is an idea of breathtaking simplicity. Think up a universal way for networks to share data that will work with any kind of network, of any size, carrying any kind of data, on any sort of machine. Let anyone use it, for free, with no restriction or limitations. Then just stand back.

Networks want to connect: The value of a network increases geometrically with the number of people who use it. Local area networks linking PCs have been widespread for years (not in India, a bottleneck?), but isolated from each other. The Internet broke that bottleneck. It offers a standard method of transmitting data that works equally well for anything from voice to e-mail.

Proprietary networks using different data standards can be part of the Internet as long as they package their data to the TCP/IP standard when they meet each other. But increasingly they use TCP/IP internally, too, because otherwise they miss out on the thousands of Internet software programs. These allow the Internet to be used for things its founders never imagined, from telephone call to live rock concerts. An open standard means more users speaking a common language, and hence a potentially huge audience, which makes it worthwhile producing such programs.

Internet content — everything from classic books to underground music — is exploding even more spectacularly. Without any prospect of profit, thousands of individuals have put millions of pages on-line-anything from complete libraries of technical information to day-to-day personal diaries or mini directories to their favourite part of the Internet. Some of them do it because the Net has remarkable power to make an ordinary person an online celebrity; it bypasses distribution channels and public relations machines. Others do it because they see a new world emerging on the Internet, and want to contribute to it. Still others do it simply because the Net is there and nothing stops them.

All this activity keeps the wires humming and attracts millions of new users each year. It also puts a great deal of pressure on the network; the companies that provide access and store data are often swamped by the relentless rising tide of traffic. In theory, the solution is simple, buy more and faster equipment. But that takes more money and therein lies a problem. The Internet economics are still stuck in its non-commercial past.