Chapter 8 Transport and Communication Solutions
Question - 11 : - What are the modes by which cyber space will expand the contemporary economic and social space of humans?
Answer - 11 : -
Human beings have used different methods long-distance communications of which the telegraph and the telephone were important. The telegraph was instrumental in the colonization of the American West. The telephone became a critical factor in the urbanization of America. Even today, the telephone is the most commonly used mode. In developing countries, the use of cell phones, made possible by satellites, is important for rural connectivity. The world soon upgraded their copper cable systems to include optic fiber cables. These allow large quantities of data to be transmitted rapidly, securely, and are virtually error-free. Today internet is the largest electronic network on the planet connecting about 1,000 million people in more than 100 countries.
Artificial satellites, now, are successfully deployed in the earthтАЩs orbit to connect even the remote comers of the globe with limited on-site verification. These have rendered the unit cost and time of communication invariant in terms of distance. Cyberspace is the world of electronic computerized space. It is encompassed by the Internet such as the World Wide Web (www). In simple words, it is the electronic digital world for communicating or accessing information over computer networks without physical movement of the sender and the receiver. It is also referred to as the Internet. Cyberspace exists everywhere. It may be in an office, sailing boat, flying plane and virtually anywhere.
There were less than 50 million Internet users in 1995, about 400 million in 2000 A.D. and over one billion in 2005. The next billion users are to be added by 2010.
As billions use the Internet each year, cyberspace will expand the contemporary economic and social space of humans through e-mail, e-commerce, e-leaning and e-governance. Internet together with fax, television and radio will be accessible to more and more people cutting across place and time. It is these modem communication systems, more than transportation that has made the concept of global village a reality.