The user of an application will not be forced to buy it. The internet will do to phone calls what it has done to mail. Already there are applications (Intel’s, Vocaltec’s, Net2Phone) which enable the user to conduct a phone conversation through his computer. It deals with applets – small bits of software – and links different computer platforms by means of software. Instead, he will use a browser to call a central computer. The cost of transferring voice will become so negligible that free cam to cam chat voice traffic is conceivable in 3-5 years. Data traffic will overtake voice traffic by a wide margin. Desktops will receive the results and communicate with the Net to receive additional clarifications and instructions and to convey information gathered from their environment (mostly, from the user). This technology is available and it provoked a heated debated about the future shape of the computing industry as a whole (desktops – really power packs – or network computers, a little more than dumb terminals).
Put differently: Future servers will contain not only information (as they do today) – but also software applications. A billion USD will go just to finance intranet servers – or, at least, this is the median forecast. The Internet offers equal, platform-independent, location-independent and time of day – independent access to all the members of an organization.Sophisticated firewall security application protects the privacy and confidentiality of the intranet from all but the most determined and savvy hackers. Microsoft continues to incorporate previously independent applications in its browsers – a behaviour which led to the 1999 anti-trust lawsuit against it. E-mail applications are available as freeware and are included in all browsers. He will not be driven into hardware-related expenditures to accommodate the ever growing size of applications. Medium to big size American firms have 50-100 intranet terminals per every internet one. The one important fact that’s missing is how you can help the FBI had come to suspect him; it’s never mentioned in the criminal complaint.
Even the voices of discussants who use internet phones come out (slightly) distorted. 5. Come from behind with hand on her hips or around her waist, kissing neck to ear slowly, turning her around to face him, the kiss deepens. Processing speeds and response times will be such that the user will not feel at all that it is not with his own software that he is working (the question of ownership will be very blurred in such a world). And, again, simultaneous multi-modality: the user can talk over the phone, see his party, send e-mail, receive messages and transfer documents – without obstructing the flow of the conversation. Consider Visa: it pushed 2 million documents per day internally in 1996. An organization equipped with an intranet can (while protected by firewalls) give its clients or suppliers access to non-classified correspondence. The above is but one example of the possible use of the intranet to communicate with the organization’s consumer base.
The development of measures to safeguard server routed inter-organizational communication (firewalls) is the solution to one of two obstacles to the institution of the Intranet. By the year 2002, a standard intranet interface will emerge. They will gradually eliminate both fixed line LANs and WANs. WANs (wide Area Networks) are used to connect geographically dispersed organs of the same legal entity (branches of a bank, daughter companies, a sales force). Same thing a drive thru setting. This beats regular phones. The intranet / extranet and wireless LANs will be the winners. Many LANs are wireless. Chances are, there are at least two other people on the other side of that speaker listening to the entire conversation taking place as you order. Thus, the Internet has completely assimilated what used to be a separate service, to the extent that many people make the mistake of thinking that e-mail is a feature of the Internet. 3. Mail and Chat The Internet (its e-mail possibilities) is eroding traditional mail.