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Chapter 3 E-business infrastructure 113

Table 3.2 Six stages of advances in the dissemination of information

Stage Enabling technology Killer applications* and impact
1 Documentation: Written language and the development of Taxes, laws and accounting giving rise to the
3500 BC to AD 1452 clay tablets in Mesopotamia development of civilization and commerce
2 Mass publication: The Gutenburg press of movable metal type Demand for religious and scientific texts
1452 to 1946 resulting in scientific advances and
ideological conflicts
3 Automation: Electric power and switching technologies Code breaking and scientific calculations.
1946 to 1978 (vacuum tubes and transistors) Start of information age
4 Mass interaction: Microprocessor and personal computer Spreadsheets and word processing
1978 to 1985
5 Infrastructuralization: Local- and wide-area networks, graphical E-mail and enterprise resource planning
1985 to 1993 user interfaces
6 Mass communication: Internet, World Wide Web, Java Mass information access for communications
1993 to c.2010 and purchasing

*Very useful applications which will encourage adoption of a technology.
Source: Adapted and republished with permission of CRC Press LLC from table on pp. 8–22 from ‘Road map to the e-revolution’, by
Kampas, P., in Information Systems Management Journal, Spring 2000, Auerbach Publications, Copyright © 2000 by CRC Press LLC;
permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

Activity 3.2 The development of the Internet

Purpose
To highlight reasons for the development of the Internet as a vital enabler for business.

Questions
Referring to Figure 3.4:
1 Give reasons why the Internet took a long time to develop into today’s essential
business tool.

2 Develop your own timeline of significant events on the Internet. A key source is the
Hobbes Internet timeline (www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/) or that of Gillies
and Cailliau (2000). See the author’s timeline (p. xxiii). See also the Focus on new
access devices section (p. 177). You may want to speculate on how timelines will
differ for future generations.
Answers to activities can be found at www.pearsoned.co.uk/chaffey

The history and origin of the Internet as a business tool is surprising since it has taken a rel-
atively long time to become an essential part of business. It started life at the end of the
1960s as the ARPAnet research and defence network in the USA which linked servers used
by key military and academic collaborators. It was established as a network that would be
reliable even if some of the links were broken. This was achieved since data and messages
sent between users were broken up into smaller packets and could follow different routes.
Read Gillies and Cailliau (2000) for a detailed description of the history of the Internet.