What can I do on the Internet?

Part One: Things you can do on the Internet

send e-mail to individuals and groups (mailing lists)
download files - software, texts, pictures, sounds, some video
buy stuff- stocks, flowers, books, airline tickets
waste time
learn a lot - reference data (e.g. government statistics) and duplicated/augmented print material (e.g. newspaper and magazine web sites) are particularly good

Part Two: Things you can find on the Internet

Generally speaking, much of the real world has some sort of presence on the web. This includes

anyone selling anything
most places that teach
any sort of organization or public or private institution
anyone with a computer and an interest

Part Three: Things you cannot find on the Internet

Many copyrighted materials - You can find web sites for Oprah's Book Club, but you cannot find the books themselves (although you can purchase them and have them delivered).

With that said, there is a large amount of copyrighted information on the web. Much of this information compliments, rather than copies, existing forms of commercial information.

A lot of copyright-expired material, particularly literature, is available on the web. Generally speaking, 75 years is about when most copyrights expire.

Your home (or business) computer - If you are at work, you cannot get info off of your home computer or vice versa, using the basic Internet.

Personal or ineffable information - Generally speaking, if you can't think of where to look in a library or bookstore or the Yellow Pages for your information, you probably won't be able to find it on the web, either.

Introduction
to the
Internet

Jeff Williamson

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