What the Internet can do for You

The Internet and the World Wide Web have been constantly visible in news touting the growth of this exciting new technology. The question from engineers coping with "reengineered" work places is, "How can the Internet increase my productivity?" Although most publicity about the Internet and its subset, the World Wide Web, has focused on future consumer commerce and elaborate multimedia displays, large amounts of practical information and many services of real value to engineers are available today. This article focuses on what the Internet can do right now for engineers. It addresses Internet-based e-mail and applications of the Internet subset known as the World Wide Web. The discussion covers both the popularly known external Internet and the lesser-known but rapidly growing internal use of Internet technology know as intranet operations. Many books and articles have been published on the derails of the technology of the Internet and Internet tools. This article references a few introductory works as a starting point for those wanting more information.