1.1. Uses of computer networks
Goals of the networks for companies:
- Resource sharing - programs, data, equipment.
- High reliability - replicated files, multiple CPU.
- Saving money - small computers have much better price/performance
ratio than large ones. The systems of personal computers, one per person,
are built with data kept on one or more shared file server machines. Users
are called clients, the whole arrangement is called the client-server model.
- Scalability - the ability to increase system performance gradually as
the workload grows just by adding more processors.
- Communication medium - enables e.g. to write a report together.
In long run, the use of networks to enhance human-to-human communication
will probably prove more important than technical goals such as improved reliability.
Services delivered by networks to private individuals at home:
- Access to remote information (interaction between a person and a remote database) -
financial institutions, home shopping, newspapers, digital library, potential
replacement of printed books by notebook computers, access to information systems
(WWW).
- Person-to-person communication (21st century answer to the 19th century's telephone)
- email, videoconference, newsgroups.
- Interactive entertainment - video on demand, interactive films.
The widespread introduction of networking will introduce new social, ethical,
political problems forming social issues of networking, e.g.:
- newsgroups set up on topics that people actually care about (politics, religion, sex)
- photographs, videoclips (e.g.children pornography)
- employee rights versus employer rights - some employers have claimed the right to
read and possibly censor employee messages
- school and students
- anonymous messages
Computer networks, like the printing press 500 years ago, allow ordinary citizens to distribute their views in different ways and to different audiences than were previously possible. This new-found freedom brings with it many unsolved social, political, and moral issues.
