Collectors are talking to each other, regardless of their countries, much more frequently, quickly and inexpensively. News is distributed more quickly and more widely. Philatelic commerce is going wild on the Internet. Every Tom, Dick and Herman with access is posting email, message board and chat messages about what he's selling. The cost seems to be almost nothing.
Web sites provide cheap full-color advertising for a fraction of the cost of print publications.
The online auction sites are taking off, too, with inflated prices reported for what we consider common, ordinary stamps and covers. At first, it might seem that the Internet would be bad for stamp collecting. Well, first, stamps and postal services survived the invention of the telephone, 'way back in 1876. I can't remember ever sending a letter to my grandmother, except when I was at college, and after awhile, the telephone replaced even that. Many are moving to the Web, in whole or in part.