Chapter 3 Local Information Infrastructure Projects and the Internet
The internet is a worldwide web connecting computer networks.
This network was first built as ARPANET developed by the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense in 1969.
The ARPANET is a research network connecting four organizations including UCLA. It was built on the technology of separate computer networks for the military. Since then, the network has spread to universities and laboratories all over the world.
In Japan, Keio University, Tokyo Industrial University and Tokyo University set up the experimental Japan University Network (JUNET) linking them by Unix-to-Unix Copy Protocol in October 1974. After the success of JUNET, the WIDE (Widely Integrated Distributed Environment) project was started to establish network technology and multimedia data processing based on a widely distributed environment. At the end of 1991, the Network Service Provider (NSP) emerged for business purposes.
Not only character and text information but image and sound information can be sent both ways on the internet. The internet is the base for multimedia information communications. It enables communication by e-mail all over the world, as well as the acquisition of information released on computers around the world and the transmission of information by multimedia using the www server. A variety of uses are being examined in the business world and some have already been put into practice.
By overcoming the problems of time and distance, the internet improves the quality of life, creates new business opportunities, minimizes the information gap between urban and rural areas, and enables balanced land development. The internet is therefore one of the most important means of promoting regional information infrastructures.
1. Current policies of local governments
As of January 1997, 477 organizations had opened their own home pages using the www server. This is a rapid increase from the 99 that had their own home pages as of January 1996. According to a survey conducted by the
