The New Internet World
A Global Perspective on Freedom of Expression, Privacy, Trust and Security Online A contribution to: The Global Information Technology Report 2010–2011 Worldwide diffusion of the Internet is focusing debate around values and attitudes that are likely to vary across cultures, particularly around online freedom of expression, privacy, trust, and security. These are prominent topics of discussion amongst leading Internet stakeholders, such as private and public sector members, governments, policymakers, and the media. However, we know relatively little about the opinions of users around the world. How do users see these issues, and how do they experience the impact of the Internet in these areas? This study reports the results of a survey of over 5,400 adult Internet users from 13 different countries. The online survey was conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and INSEAD, in collaboration with comScore. It was designed to better understand cross-cultural differences in user behaviour and attitudes, focusing on the core Internet values of freedom of expression, privacy, trust, and security.
http://www.weforum.org/reports/new-internet-world
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that are set up to exchange various types of data. This "network of networks" connects millions of computers, including those in academic, business, and government networks, transcending geographic and national boundaries. It is made possible through the merging of computer technology with technologies used by the media and telecommunications industries.
The Internet connects information resources and provides various services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and the inter-linked hypertext documents and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).
The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in every-day speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global data communications system. It is a hardware and software infrastructure that provides connectivity between computers. In contrast, the Web is one of the services communicated via the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Internet
