Genesis
The World Wide Web (a.k.a. the Internet) traces its roots to way back in 1969. Thirty-five years ago, a group of computer scientists got together to build the first packet-switching network. Their experiment involved just 4 computers. (Mind you, this was a large number those days, as far as computers went!)

After the mandatory number of failures, they were successful. They called this network the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). And thus was laid the foundations of the Internet.

Ironically, it was the dissolution of the ARPANET (in 1990) that paved the way for the Internet.

Infinity, Accessibility & Rapidly Evolving
The Internet is associated with infinite size, free accessibility and unbelievably fast development & evolution of technology. How does it achieve this ?

Infinite: Being comprised of a number of "inter-connected" packet-switching networks (many of which are massive in their own right), makes the Internet so vast, so - infinite.

Free: Since each individual network is governed locally, the rules for accessibility are local. And therefore there is no global control. This is what makes the Internet so free, so accessible.

Evolving: The collection of connected individual networks with minimum controls is responsible for the harnessing and unbelievably rapid proliferation of myriad technologies - as they are developed across the globe. From e-mails to online databases. Current events to shopping online. Chatting with friends far away to sharing knowledge. Online search engines to online banking. The net has given everybody an opportunity to showcase technology, products & services. And almost everybody has grabbed the opportunity!

This is why the Internet has been evolving at an unbelievable pace !

A Case for Imminent Collapse
If the Internet is evolving so fast, then why is there a doubt about its future? Tragically, the collapse of the Internet is linked to the same businesses & commercial set-ups who saved or made money out of the net.

One of the primary driving forces of the Internet is the constant increase in bandwidth. And it is this bandwidth availability which is under threat because of a number of factors.

Here are some of the factors:

• Junk e-mail (spam): The most successful "Internet" technology today is e-mail. And it is sad to note that 80% of all e-mail traffic is spam.

• Viruses, worms: The number of viruses & worms are ever-increasing. And continue to be a serious & threat to the net.

• Outdated architecture: The architecture is based on a 35 year old model which was tested by connecting 4 computers. Today, there are millions of computers exchanging data - generating traffic which could not even be imagined 3 decades ago!

• Commercialization: The Internet has become commercialized over the past decade. This has led to concentration of key net cable networks in the hands of fewer organizations. This could affect the "free" image of the Internet.

Already there are signs of what some term as "imminent collapse" of the net. Huge increases in bandwidth are barely keeping up with the number of surfers, size of content & e-mail (spam!) traffic. ISPs give more & more busy signals as customer bases grow faster than the ability to add lines. Available IP addresses are getting scarcer, which will make it difficult to add large numbers of users / devices to the Internet. And the WTC terrorist attacks (9/11/2001) have demonstrated the vulnerability of the net - by destroying a major Internet hub & severing links between New York City and its counties.

Future without the Net
Could we slip back into the "pre-Internet" days? Could there be a future without e-mail? Or is it high time that we reviewed the situation?

After all, it is better to prevent than to recover from a possible collapse.