The file transfer protocols, or FTP , are used for sending files from one computer to another. Normally you must have a password for the computer you wish to exchange files with, but there are also many anonymous FTP sites which permit anyone to log on and retrieve specific files. Usenet News , another feature of the Internet, are bulletin boards containing discussions on any conceivable topic - for instance, specialists in environmental accounting. A variety of other special services have been developed for the Internet. In July of 1994 there are an estimated 10 million users accessing the Internet from 20,000 unique networks.
Growth continues to be tremendous, with a near doubling in subscribers reported each year.
Although the Internet had long been in use on college campuses, much recent growth was in commercial accounts. However, many of those commercial subscribers, fearing security breaches, had chosen to either isolate their commercial networks or to establish very limited access between them and the Worldwide Web. The Internet is not an organization with stockholders, president, and a board of directors. Instead it can be thought of as a set of communications protocols, as functions users can perform, as a great inventory of available information, or as a scheme for intelligently connecting the people of the world into one fast learning organism. The governance structure for the Internet, thus far, has been fairly loose.