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drtomorrow@shaw.com
INTERNET EXPANDING
05 Nov 2000
During the first week of July 2000, the Internet reached one-third of a billion people. Nothing in human history has ever moved so fast (the speed of light), so far (to every continent) and created so much wealth. Who is using this growing colossus of knowledge and know-how? Some 147 million people in Canada and the United States are on-line. The rest of the world, who entered this race later, have surged ahead with 186, million 47 million in the last three months.
NUA INTERNET SURVEYS In Millions
YEAR 2000 JAN FEB MAR A/M/J
WORLD TOTAL 249 276 304 333
AFRICA 2 2 3 3
ASIA/PACIFIC 43 55 69 76
EUROPE 64 72 83 92
MIDDLE EAST 1 1 2 2
CANADA & USA 131 136 137 147
SOUTH AMERICA 7 9 11 13
MILLION
NOTE: NORTH AMERICA 137 147
APR JUNE
ROW (REST OF WORLD) 139 186
(Courtesy: NUA.com)
Internet growth has been uninterrupted on every continent on Earth.
Surfers in the rest of the world will continue to increase their presence on the Internet as they have in 95 percent of the current web population and in 135 of the 137 countries. However, catching up with the latest technology (digital cameras, voice activation, media streaming), high band-width (high-speed modems, cable, wireless connectivity), and such peripheral appliances as cell phones, E-books, Palm Pilots, high-speed color printers will be difficult. The future doesn't arrive simultaneously everywhere.
Five years ago not one-tenth of one percent of the planet's population had even heard the word "Internet". Growth has been phenomenal.
The Net now affects everyone on the planet. Nothing of consequence anywhere is immune. It is changing the way we live and work, the way we perceive and plan. Even people unaware of the totality of the effect are affected. And not just humans. Environment, agriculture, oceans, atmosphere, language, physical wellness and the food we eat are all influenced by this new global brain.
My Apple G4 super computer set-up with its two-inch-thick Apple Cinema Display Screen may be more elaborate than most but the content is available to all. Some 700 periodicals, hours of media streaming Web-TV, software that can pull up pictures (ditto.com) like we pull up words, browsers (alltheweb.com) that search 300 million documents in less than half a second are free for everyone. Even free phone service (dialpad.com, net2phone.com) is out there.
Open minds who attempt to keep up with this dazzling cornucopia of data will survive and thrive. This monumental change in the human condition will benefit many. People who hold back through fear, frustration, frugality or indifference have a shrinking future and are vulnerable to stagnation.
Professionals in many fields are threatened. An earlier entry in my diary explains how digital cameras (no film, no processing, and 1,000 pictures on a single chip) have much of the skill of a professional photographer built right-into the hardware. Hard to accept for achivers who have attained influence and affluence through years of traditional dedication and who see teckie-toys replacing all they held dear. Flight instructors from the old school are diminishing and are being replaced by flight simulators. Brain surgeons will soon be acquiring their skills in months, not years. They will reach a higher degree of skill because they will "operate" on hundreds of patients before they obtain their certificate while surgeons taught the old way only had the opportunity to try it out on a few. Would you prefer to be patient #201 or number three?
Students are now finding they do not have to learn at a very young age things they may never use (hands up, please for all those who use calculus, French, Latin or even English literature daily life?). Students (many self-taught) are learning just-in-time. Remember what just-in-time delivery of assembly parts did for the Japanese auto industry?
When you need it, feed it. Learning never stops.
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