An Introduction to Cyberspace for Medical Professionals BY Sheldon Chang, MSPT Physical Therapist

The origins of the Internet can be traced back to the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPAnet) in 1969, [15, 38] but the Internet as we know it today didn't take shape until the 1980's. Initially, the goal was to create a fail-safe communications system in the event of a first strike nuclear attack. By design, the network would continue functioning even if a large block of it was completely destroyed. This was accomplished by decentralizing the network, meaning that each node of the network had autonomy and no one node had any more influence over the other nodes than the others had on it. After the Department of Defense, computer scientists and academic researchers had their stab at using the network that would eventually be known as the Internet. Scholarly data exchanged hands, but since all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, it didn't take long for all sorts of fun and games to root itself into Net culture.[38]

Through the 1980's the Internet grew slowly and started to look like the Internet as we know it today. In 1991, the population explosion in Cyberspace began as the number of people on-line grew exponentially year after year. As of December 1997, the Nielsen Media Research group [34] estimates that more than 58 million people in North America alone had Internet access. The world-wide count was estimated by another group to be 100 million entering 1998, [59] but due to the size and open nature of the Internet, all statistics are questionable. The Internet and its access points have become so widespread that it can be accessed even in places like Antarctica, Northern Canada, and developing countries where telephone networks are inadequate or completely lacking. [31]

Societal Values of Cyberspace

The Internet can be a very confusing place for newcomers not only because of the technical barriers that a new user faces, but because of the cultural barriers as well. Users of the Internet face a culture that is irreverent of geographic location and is based upon the free exchange of ideas. Quality information is the hard currency of the Internet and anything that interferes with the distribution of quality information is highly frowned upon. [38, 56]

Since anyone can gain an audience regardless of credibility, skepticism is also a key value of the Internet user.

Two fundamental and interrelated values in the on-line world are the conservation of bandwidth and the preservation of an acceptable signal to noise ratio. [27, 38] Conservation of bandwith means to avoid the spread of useless information because the ability of the networks to traffic information is a limited resource. However, what is considered a "waste of bandwidth" is not universally agreed upon, but as a general guideline, posting redundant information, posting to inappropriate locations, and the use of unnecessarily large graphic files on web pages are nearly unanimously considered a waste of bandwidth. The preservation of an acceptable signal to noise ratio draws on a short wave radio analogy of a quality channel of communications. Whereas to the radio operator, the noise is static on his frequency, to the Internet user, the noise is "useless information" that hampers the search for quality information.

The Internet was said to be a functional anarchy because of it's lack of centralization of control and lack of "legislation," but it would be incorrect to say that the Internet is without rules. Although it's short on legislation, there are many rules and conventions that every user is expected to learn and follow, [56] nearly all of which can be deduced back down to one of the two fundamental values mentioned above, and which can then be reduced into the value placed on the free exchange of ideas and quality information. A functional Internet community will self-police its members to uphold its societal values, [38, 56] but at the same time it tends to resist outside control or legislation (which is short sighted anyhow since the Internet is international). Restricting the free exchange of ideas, is anathema to the recognized and lurking seniority of Cyberspace.

Although with the rapid growth of the Internet, the classical societal values of the old school Internet community appears to have greatly deteriorated on the whole, in smaller communication groups such as mailing lists (explained in the next section), the laws remain in effect. On the rest of the Internet, the abundance of junk information sometimes makes practical use of Internet resources a frustrating endeavor for new users who have not yet developed good information finding skills. Filters, agents, and third-party directories to resources are some emerging solutions to keep the noise down, but ultimately, new users need to develop sharp skills in locating and evaluating information in order to gain maximum benefit from using the Internet.

Searching for the right information in a large research library is not different from performing a search on-line. In the library, there is always more information than any one person wants, needs, or agrees with. Weeding out outdated sources, inappropriate references, and getting to the right information are not research skills that have suddenly become important with the emergence of the Internet.

Skepticism: The hallmark of the information savvy

Because of a lack of control on what goes on-line and what doesn't, anyone can say something and have a potential audience of millions regardless of his or her credibility. The almost legendary on-line service and ISP, the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (WELL), has long bannered the message "You are responsible for your own words" across its login message. This means that each user is responsible for he or she thinks and says. It should also be said that you are responsible for what you believe. Since the Internet indiscriminately supports hucksters, fools, and genius alike, skepticism is a key value of the Internet user. The experienced user never consults only one source. [42]

The 20th century has been a gradual evolution from an information poor world to an information and information-junk abundant one. In an information poor world, the power of expert opinion (whether perceived or actual) is a highly valued and respected trait. As more and more people around the world are wired to the Internet, the potential sources of "expert opinion" may become practically unlimited. There becomes more room to scrutinize "expert opinion." Real expert opinion is not to be insulted and perhaps the shift will only be a mild one, but when sources for information are abundant, there may be a shift of focus away from relying on the power of expert opinion to the ability to be maximally interdependent between multiple sources of information. In less glamorous terms, this ability is called research.

Pierre Salinger, the now infamous former US journalist made a common rookie mistake when he gave too much trust to what appeared to be a source of expert opinion on the Internet. Unfortunately for Salinger, he learned his lesson only after embarrassing himself by expounding a radical conspiracy theory about the crash of TWA Flight 800 before the world on network TV. The Salinger incident triggers wholesale distrust of information gleaned from on-line sources and respected figures are afraid of making the same mistake that Salinger made. Writing off the Internet as a viable and valuable source of information is not the answer. The answer is in learning to be more critical consumers of information.