What exactly is the web?

The world wide web is made up of thousands of websites on individual computers around the world that we can connect to via the internet .

The physical internet is a network of networks. It is like a road system we can use to find our way from our own computer to material stored on other computers - webpages - or to send messages - email - between computers.

The internet as we know it was created in 1990, but the earliest vision of a 'web' of computers sharing data dates back to the early 1960s as the historical timeline shows. It was developed for use by the US military.

Who uses it?

"There was an international survey in 1994 that found that only 5% of the world wide web users were women. But that number has slowly increased, so, by 1998, about a third of www users were women, and we think we've now just passed the 50%-50% mark", Helen Petrie , tells The Big Question. "I remember looking at the world wide web when it first became known about, and it was full of sites put up by programmers who tended to be men. There weren't many things to really interest women in general, but that has slowly changed."

In the early days, the vast majority of internet users were young people with an interest in computers. But that has also changed. According to Professor Petrie of the City University in London, a fifth of Europe's population over 55 now use the internet.

But, she warns, "People are worried that the internet, while it is a fantastic thing, is also increasing the so-called digital divide ."

More than five billion people are unconnected - mainly in the developing world. That causes some organisations great concern - shown by the UNESCO strategy to combat the digital divide and Bridges, a non-profit organisation working to promote the uptake of IT in the developing world. Many believe that "marginalised people need a voice", and there is much debate about how to start transforming the digital divide into digital opportunities via the world wide web. One solution has been found in Bhutan, where only 2000 out of the 2 million population have access to the internet. A national radio programme browses the web on air to answer listeners' questions.

Is it changing the way we live?

Phil Noble , of Politics Online in the United States, tells The Big Question the web is having a huge impact on politics.

"The internet essentially didn't exist in politics in 1994," says Phil Noble. "Just 10 years later, the president of South Korea really ran the first internet election."

The Iraq War saw the rise of blogging - online diaries kept by individuals, like Zeyad of Healing Iraq or Ays, who compiles Iraq At A Glance.

"They had a huge impact on the way the media covered the war," says Phil Noble, "and on access to political debate."

"In countries where forms of communication have been traditionally difficult or controlled by the state, blogging can provide a hugely viable channel because of its personal nature", says British MP Richard Allan , who writes his own personal online diary. "The individual voices are, perhaps, more powerful".

Phil Noble agrees. "China has the second largest internet usage population after the United States. There you see voices of independent expression, voices of dissent expressing themselves in finding a way out, and other finding a way in via the internet. And we're going to see it happening over and over again, not just in China."

And there's no going back, says Richard Allan. "If politicians want to remain relevant, they also need to be engaged in that conversation. When everybody went to the town square to listen to the politicians, they went there. When everybody started watching TV, the politicians went on TV. Now the internet is there and everybody is there, chatting with each other."

This edition of The Big Question was first broadcast on 30th October 2004

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Content last updated: 25/11/2004

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