Toward the information network

The information service industry will drive economic wealth in the twenty-first century. The transport part of that industry-information networks-are emerging as the critical infrastructure for commerce, similar to the role of ships and railroads in the 1800s and automobiles and airlines in the 1900s. Information networks will transport the primary commercial commodity of the next century-digitized information-and information appliances will put it at your fingertips. Computer communications networks, or "information highways", have evolved from their beginnings in the Arpanet into the modern Internet. And the suite of Internet protocols has spread into commercial enterprises, in the form of intranets. Simultaneously, advances in computer processing and storage have enabled agents, directory services, and network computing to enrich the available information and tools. The continuing proliferation of media-rich applications, such as videoconferencing, on-line gaming, and virtual reality will drive the further evolution of the next generation of connectivity, the Information Network. This article explains the sequential evolution of three phases of networking-the Arpanet, the Internet, and the Information Network-and explores the barriers to realizing the new information network paradigm.