Internet

=== Usage ===
[[File:InternetPenetrationWorldMap.svg|thumb|360px|<div style="text-align: center">'''[[List of countries by number of Internet users|Internet users in 2015 as a percentage of a country's population]]'''</div>Source: [[International Telecommunication Union]].<ref name=ITU-IndividualsUsingTheInternet/>]]
{{Main|Global digital divide|Digital divide}}

[[File:FixedBroadbandInternetPenetrationWorldMap.svg|thumb |360px |<div style="text-align: center">'''[[List of countries by number of broadband Internet subscriptions|Fixed broadband Internet subscriptions in 2012]]<br />as a percentage of a country's population'''</div>Source: [[International Telecommunication Union]].<ref name="FixedBroadbandITUDynamic2012">[http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ICTEYE/Reporting/DynamicReportWizard.aspx "Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726064920/http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ICTEYE/Reporting/DynamicReportWizard.aspx |date=26 July 2019 }}, Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE, [[International Telecommunication Union]]. Retrieved 29 June 2013.</ref>]]

[[File:MobileBroadbandInternetPenetrationWorldMap 2013.svg|thumb |360px |<div style="text-align: center">'''[[List of countries by number of broadband Internet subscriptions|Mobile broadband Internet subscriptions in 2012]]<br />as a percentage of a country's population'''</div>Source: [[International Telecommunication Union]].<ref name="MobleBroadbandITUDynamic2012">[http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ICTEYE/Reporting/DynamicReportWizard.aspx "Active mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726064920/http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ICTEYE/Reporting/DynamicReportWizard.aspx |date=26 July 2019 }}, Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE, [[International Telecommunication Union]]. Retrieved 29 June 2013.</ref>]]
The Internet allows greater flexibility in working hours and location, especially with the spread of unmetered high-speed connections. The Internet can be accessed almost anywhere by numerous means, including through [[mobile Internet device]]s. Mobile phones, [[datacard]]s, [[handheld game console]]s and [[cellular router]]s allow users to connect to the Internet [[wireless]]ly. Within the limitations imposed by small screens and other limited facilities of such pocket-sized devices, the services of the Internet, including email and the web, may be available. Service providers may restrict the services offered and mobile data charges may be significantly higher than other access methods.

Educational material at all levels from pre-school to post-doctoral is available from websites. Examples range from [[CBeebies]], through school and high-school revision guides and [[Virtual university|virtual universities]], to access to top-end scholarly literature through the likes of [[Google Scholar]]. For [[distance education]], help with [[homework]] and other assignments, self-guided learning, whiling away spare time or just looking up more detail on an interesting fact, it has never been easier for people to access educational information at any level from anywhere. The Internet in general and the World Wide Web in particular are important enablers of both [[Education|formal]] and [[informal education]]. Further, the Internet allows researchers (especially those from the social and behavioral sciences) to conduct research remotely via virtual laboratories, with profound changes in reach and generalizability of findings as well as in communication between scientists and in the publication of results.<ref>{{cite book|last=Reips|first=U.-D.|year=2008|chapter=How Internet-mediated research changes science|url=http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/psychology/social-psychology/psychological-aspects-cyberspace-theory-research-applications|title=Psychological aspects of cyberspace: Theory, research, applications|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809235408/http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/psychology/social-psychology/psychological-aspects-cyberspace-theory-research-applications|archive-date=9 August 2014|pages=268–294|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-69464-3}}</ref>

The low cost and nearly instantaneous sharing of ideas, knowledge, and skills have made [[collaboration|collaborative]] work dramatically easier, with the help of [[collaborative software]]. Not only can a group cheaply communicate and share ideas but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups more easily to form. An example of this is the [[free software movement]], which has produced, among other things, [[Linux]], [[Mozilla Firefox]], and [[OpenOffice.org]] (later forked into [[LibreOffice]]). Internet chat, whether using an [[IRC]] chat room, an [[instant messaging]] system, or a social networking service, allows colleagues to stay in touch in a very convenient way while working at their computers during the day. Messages can be exchanged even more quickly and conveniently than via email. These systems may allow files to be exchanged, drawings and images to be shared, or voice and video contact between team members.

[[Content management]] systems allow collaborating teams to work on shared sets of documents simultaneously without accidentally destroying each other's work. Business and project teams can share calendars as well as documents and other information. Such collaboration occurs in a wide variety of areas including scientific research, software development, conference planning, political activism and creative writing. Social and political collaboration is also becoming more widespread as both Internet access and [[computer literacy]] spread.

The Internet allows computer users to remotely access other computers and information stores easily from any access point. Access may be with [[computer security]], i.e. authentication and encryption technologies, depending on the requirements. This is encouraging new ways of [[remote work]], collaboration and information sharing in many industries. An accountant sitting at home can [[audit]] the books of a company based in another country, on a server situated in a third country that is remotely maintained by IT specialists in a fourth. These accounts could have been created by home-working bookkeepers, in other remote locations, based on information emailed to them from offices all over the world. Some of these things were possible before the widespread use of the Internet, but the cost of private [[leased line]]s would have made many of them infeasible in practice. An office worker away from their desk, perhaps on the other side of the world on a business trip or a holiday, can access their emails, access their data using [[cloud computing]], or open a [[Remote Desktop Protocol|remote desktop]] session into their office PC using a secure [[virtual private network]] (VPN) connection on the Internet. This can give the worker complete access to all of their normal files and data, including email and other applications, while away from the office. It has been referred to among [[system administrator]]s as the Virtual Private Nightmare,<ref>{{cite web|title=The Virtual Private Nightmare: VPN |url=http://librenix.com/?inode=5013 |publisher=Librenix |access-date=21 July 2010 |date=4 August 2004 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515152637/http://librenix.com/?inode=5013 |archive-date=15 May 2011 }}</ref> because it extends the secure perimeter of a corporate network into remote locations and its employees' homes.

By late 2010s Internet has been described as "the main source of scientific information "for the majority of the global North population".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Dariusz Jemielniak|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLDMDwAAQBAJ|title=Collaborative Society|author2=Aleksandra Przegalinska|year= 2020|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-35645-9|access-date=26 November 2020|archive-date=23 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123045652/https://books.google.com/books?id=yLDMDwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Rp|111}}