New Year on the Internet Will Be Transforming

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A Whole New Net

Well, maybe a quite *different* Internet is in the making. The changes for 1995 promise to be exciting and transforming as well, as the progress toward commercialization and privatization continues. The National Science Foundation (NSF), which has provided much of the backbone for the U.S. Internet to date, implements a new regional NAP (network access point) structure. Most of the regional and larger ISPs (Internet service providers) will be upgrading equipment and providing faster and more robust Internet connections for their users.

America Online (AOL) has recently announced the purchase of one of the major ISPs, Advanced Network & Services, Inc. (ANS), and plans major AOL system upgrades and newer, faster access points for AOL users; the impact on Internet access via AOL isn't clear, but AOL has made a major move into Internet operations with the buying of ANS and other Internet-related software companies. Keep your eye on AOL in 1995, and likely CompuServe and Prodigy won't stand by watching their market erode either.

Also on the horizon for the Internet are more software clients, such as the fine World Wide Web browser Netscape from Netscape Communications, Inc. There are some great new features scheduled for the new Version 3.0 of the great e-mail software Eudora, from Qualcomm, Inc.; reportedly, Eudora will be able to access Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) in e-mail if the configuration and setup for Internet access is selected. We'll likely see improved versions of most of the current network tools in 1995; a new version of Jughead --a specialized gopher search tool--was just released.

So, it's a great time to be a part of the fast-growing and ever-changing Internet. We may even find some costs dropping this year from the overall competition in the marketplace. Caveat: watch the game in DC to see what the Republicans want to do with government information and access. Some of the Clinton Administration initiatives may be revamped under the new party in power's leadership.

Now, on with the Internet news.

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