SELECT * FROM INTERNET
The history of the public internet started when a young Congressman by the name of Al Gore started pushing towards the development of a high speed internet for the future technological and economic development of the United States of America. (Read further here)
The publication of the TCP/IP protocol allowed organizations to transfer information between computers. Since then, the world has become a different place altogether. (Read further here) The internet is no longer a network of computers that share information on a shared, standard protocol. It is a platform for Education and Trade, the building blocks of society at any level.
It took the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners Lee for the world to realize the internet wasn't just for getting information from one place to another, but also to link and share information that could exist in different places on the internet.
The internet boom was a direct result of the public consumer acceptance of the World Wide Web. After the consumers picked up the internet for knowledge and communications, Business took interest in utilizing the web for various types of products and services, of which a few still exist from the "old days" of the internet such as Yahoo and Amazon. Now with the birth of Web 2.0, Business is taking a strong look at how to use the real estate of the browser screen to impact consumers. (eGovernment, is another topic altogether for another article.)
We know have what I believe a standard as potent and with as much or more potential as TCP/IP. It is XML. XML in the last 10 years has exploded beyond recognition with hundreds of specialized uses for the technology from Presentation Markup (XHTML, XAML, XUL, Flex), to Content Markup (RSS, OpenDoc), to Business Integration Markup (ebXML) , to The Next Big Thing. Where XML is going to go is unknown, but what I do know is what where we can make it go.
I see an immediate shift from current status of the internet to coalesce three basic needs for any Organizations that have a presense on the internet for the purpose of Business. It's not that these technologies already exist, it's how they will become as popular as Database technology in Information Technology teams.
Portals
Portals will fill the need for Interfaces for people. The table computer and the iPhone will change our industry. It will endanger our current skill set, however, we can utilize our development capabilities to provide portals and portal implementation and customization. Portals provide frameworks on top of standard HTML generation strategies which standardizes user systems, security, and templating. As portal technology progresses, we will be able to translate applications we build for today's portals into dynamically graphic applications using technologies such as WPF.
Services
Services, spefically XML Web Services will fill the need for data integration on a standard XML platform, whether it's built on a "message oriented" or "service oriented" architecture. The construction of web services will have to be done for Businesses that wish to expose their information in the form of procedures that can give and take information. There are special cases where information transfer will be required in bulk, in which standardized Queue processing can be utilized.
Integration
Integration of Services. Services from Business to Business will differ. Implementing a Web Service is half the battle. The other half is integrating services that are already built. Web Service Producers need to have Web Service Consumers, both of which are equally important to the internet ecosystem. As we integrate services, we will begin to see patterns in the information structures and come up with standards. Web Service like services such as RSS and SiteMap XML will are already at the forefront of integrating information
Web Service production and consumption together with Portals, provides all parties, complete end-to-end information exchange needs. Organizations on the internet will linked at both the physical network level and the information level allowing Information of the World at Your Fingertips. Hence the title of this article: "SELECT * FROM INTERNET"