Way back on October 1, 1999, BusinessWeek magazine marveled at the emerging Internet:
“Thepower to navigate the world at the click of a mouse is a force thatis transforming our lives like none before.”
And if the web was such a powerful force back then, it blows the mindto consider what it is today. Even though we act like it’s been here forever, ithas really only been of practical use for about twenty years (although earlieriterations have been around since 1969). From politics to the media, frombusiness to government, from communication to education, and from across thestreet to around the world, it impacts everything. Nothing has changed ourlives so much, so fast, as the Internet.
For us in learning and performance, the same is true. We’ve hadcomputer-based training in some form for decades, with relatively littleprogress, until the Internet. Our push into informal/online learning would justbe a footnote in our business without the web. Yet as big as the onlinelearning world is likely to get, it will always be just a couple of drops inthe huge Internet ocean.
The transforming web
So let’s take a break from our own world to look at the bigger picture.It all began as a government research tool but now pervades every aspect of ourlives. We hate it and love it at the same time, and some of us are addicted toit. It started out as just a place to get information, with most websites setup only for reading. By the end of the 1990s, we began to do transactionsonline. This gave rise to sites like Amazon and eBay and the notion ofeCommerce. Buying online became commonplace—once a frightful experience, now wedon’t give it a second thought. The ability of the Internet to managetransactions gave rise to learning management systems, which undoubtedly helpedthe eLearning industry boom. And, as speeds got faster, the web has become a truemultimedia platform.
Now a third transition of the web is well underway. While still asource for information and transactions, it has become very social. Many-to-manyconversations and collaborations take place online. Everyone is a contentconsumer and a content creator. Andthe tools to do all of this keep getting easier and easier to use. Where wewill go next is anyone’s guess, but for sure, we’re not done.
The size and power of the Internet
As the Internet moves in new directions and further into our lives andour work, we often take its enormous influence for granted. How big andpowerful is it, really? It’s not something that can easily be put into words. Fortunately,the web provides its own answers. Infographics,like this one, can help. Here are some more interesting (and fun) sites that helpput it all in perspective:
- Forty Maps that Explain the Internet. Watch the Internet grow and change sinceits very beginning.
- A Snapshot of One Minute on the Internet. Remember, there are almost 526,000minutes in a year!
- What Happens in a Facebook Minute. And that’s just one app!
- A Guide to the Internet of Things and How the Internet of Things Will Rule Your Workday in 2020. It’s alreadyhappening. Your car talks to the dealership, your house talks to the powercompany, and your bathroom scale talks to your phone, which then talks to yourdoctor.
- Internet Live Stats. Check this site out for the current total number of websites.
- The Internet in Real Time.Not an infographic exactly, but an illustration of real time web activity.
Cautions
While we’ve become accustomed to the Internet, it’s worth beingreminded from time to time how amazing it all really is. The future of the weblooks bright, but it’s not completely rosy. Bruce Schneier’s excellent commentary about howwe must pro-actively shape the Internet’s future, and Bridget Shirvell’s Fifteen Predictions for the Future of the Internet, include both positive andnegative consequences of the growing web. Also, the continuing debate over “netneutrality” may have serious implications for web access, including eLearning (especiallyfor public and higher education). Food for thought.
It can be overwhelming
There is so much information online, it’s assuredly more than we, as asociety, let alone us in eLearning in our little corner of the world, can ever fullyhandle. So how will we use the infinite power of the web—power that no one isprecisely sure how to harness completely and safely—to bring the rightknowledge to the right people, at the right place and time, and at the rightlevel of detail, without drowning in it all? It’s our #1 challenge, I believe.
A couple of final fun facts: if you’re thinking of downloading theentire Internet (and who isn’t?), at today’s speeds, Physics.org suggests it will takeyou around three million years to download its estimated 550 trillion megabytes of data. Quitea long time for something that weighs only about two ounces.
Mindblown.
