Welcome to Internet, a vast system of more than 3,000 linked computer networks around the world. For the roughly 3 million researchers and educators who regularly use it, the lightning-fast Internet makes distance irrelevant and time malleable. Michigan, a pioneer in long-distance networking, has become a critical link in the Internet. Millions of computer users in the United States use modems to connect their home or office computers through conventional phone lines to other computers or to such low-end network services as Prodigy and CompuServe. But Prodigy is to the Internet as a garden hose is to the Mississippi River.
Networks help businesses and individuals speedily share information.
As information becomes a larger component of the economy, networks, role will grow. He is the chief sponsor of pending legislation to build an even more robust national computer network. But since the information revolution began to pick up speed, it's become clear that the most important determinant of national competitive advantage is the ability to handle information and knowledge, especially in digital form. By the year 2015, high-speed computer lines are expected to reach into most American homes, schools and offices, revolutionizing the way America works, learns and plays. But in the here and now, the Internet's users consider it a mighty tool.