 The Internet. The Inet. The Net. You've heard of it. You've read about it. You may have even seen parts of it. But what is it? Think of the Internet as a network of communication networks. Doesn't help enough? Let's get transportation specific then. Think of the Internet as a vast communications network similar to the U.S. interstate highway system. You can access our highway system from a variety of points. There are different on and off ramps. There are toll roads and freeways. Smaller roads and intermodal connections link into the highway system. All types of vehicles use the system. In essence, it's a vast dispersed transportation network. The Internet is designed in a similar fashion. You access the Internet from a variety of points and through a variety of connections. Perhaps via your home computer with an online service provider or perhaps at work through your local area network. You use a variety of Internet tools to access the information on the system. You may link to basic text files or spend your time perusing the high end of the Internet complete with multimedia video and sound images. The choice is yours. But the network is your communications link to data and information and much of that information is transportation related. You're saying to yourself, well now I understand this Internet concept a little better but what are the real benefits to me? On the most basic terms, the Internet affords you rapid, relatively inexpensive and increasingly user friendly access to the vast amounts of data, information and people worldwide. More explicitly, with the Internet you can exchange information quickly and conveniently. You can access expert individuals in thousands of fields. You can receive regular updates on topics of interest to you. You can build electronic teams across geographic distance. You can gain access to a wide variety of information and data and other users can similarly access your files. You can translate and transfer data for your personal and business use. And the list continues. Sound amazing? It is. But let's get specific. Variety of Internet tools have been developed to help your entry into the world of cyberspace and make it more successful. Electronic mail is the most basic and most utilized Internet tool. Indeed, electronic mail may very well be to the 21st century what telephones were to the 20th. What's so great about email? Well, to begin with, it's an easy, fast and inexpensive way to communicate with people around the world and the concept behind electronic mail is easy to understand. In fact, it's much like sending traditional mail. You compose a message, a letter, you indicate the to and from addresses and then send it, drop it in the Internet mailbox. However, unlike traditional mail, email is almost always fasting, often taking only seconds and is often cheaper than regular mail or even a phone call. BTS has established an email address for customer feedback and comments on our products and services. You can reach us via Internet email at info at bts.gov. A little clarification here. Remember, when you want to send and receive Internet email, you need Internet access. You may already have email capability within your office on your local area network or LAN, but this alone does not support Internet email. To send and receive email from the 30 million plus users of the net requires an Internet connection. Now, what if you wanted to get some information on, let's say, congestion management, for example? You've been tipped off that there's some great data and information available, but it's on a computer halfway across the country. You've got a deadline and need immediate access. What can you do? Well, if that computer with your congestion management data can be accessed via an Internet tool called FTP or File Transfer Protocol, access to this data may only be a few keystrokes away. Well, how? Well, File Transfer Protocol is an Internet tool which gives you the ability to send and receive files from one Internet connected computer to another. Once you find the information you're interested in, FTP allows you to transfer it back to your individual computer for personal use. While FTP is an important tool that allows you to transfer files across the Internet, it doesn't let you easily browse a site to see what type of information and data is available. Gopher is another Internet tool that was designed to do just that. In Gopher space, as it's called, data and information are organized in broad categories. You literally burrow through hierarchies of menus with increasing specificity until you reach your level of interest. Gopher is easy to navigate and easy to browse. It also allows you to select and view a file on demand. Watch as we burrow through the BTS Gopher site available at the address gopher.bts.gov to access a file on traffic safety data. With just a few points and clicks, you're already there at the main gopher screen for BTS. As you can see, there's a list of folders. These contain additional information on the particular subject. The World Wide Web, or Web as it's affectionately called, is perhaps the most exciting and most popular tool that has become recently available on the Internet, because it's easily the most user-friendly of all the Internet tools. Think of the Web as something spun with a variety of interconnected linkages and paths to follow. These paths are called hyperlinks and seamlessly connect you to additional data and information of your choosing, just by pointing and clicking. The Web puts you in the control seat and lets you interactively decide how to access information. And one of the more exciting aspects of the Web is its support of multimedia. On the Web, you can just as easily access data and information by a sound, image, video, and graphics, as you can text. Let's see what we can find at the Bureau of Transportation Statistics World Wide Web site. The address is www.bts.gov. The first page of any Web site is called its Home Page. This is the BTS Home Page. As you can see, this page provides an overview of the information and data that can be found at the BTS site. You can point and click on any of the main buttons to go to that area. Or you can read the related text and point and click on the highlighted words or phrases and receive additional information on that subject. Now let's demonstrate a few of the BTS products that you can find at our World Wide Web, Gopher, and FTP sites. BTS is about more than just tables and graphs. We have to answer the basic questions as the transportation system in its consequences is getting better or worse. What do we mean by better or worse? And why are conditions changing? We summarize her findings in the Transportation Statistics Annual Report and in other publications, which we make available in traditional paper form as well as in electronic form. Internet is a way we can get the electronic forms to you, our readers, as well as to share information and insights with the people who help us perform the analysis. The State and Metropolitan Analysis for Regional Transportation, the SMART Project, is really an attempt to create an information infrastructure for transportation planners around the country. The SMART Project really is just a series of boxes at this point. There are electronic boxes into which we've plugged reports and data sets that were delivered to us from transportation planners around the country. Those reports are the first time that anyone has really tried to share information from one small metropolitan planning organization to another metropolitan planning organization elsewhere in the country in any organized, systematic way over the Internet. The BTS Office of Geographic Information Services has three major missions. The first is to produce and maintain spatial data related to transportation. The second is to use these data in conjunction with GIS technology to conduct analyses in support of DOT policy deliberations. Thirdly, BTS will produce products such as maps, statistics, and the results of the analyses that it conducts. With the Internet, this vast array of products will be available to all BTS customers. As you've seen, the Internet is filled with valuable information resources, many of them transportation-specific. To get access to these resources, you must have an Internet connection. But what do you need to establish a connection? Here's a starter list. You'll need a computer, Mac or PC, it doesn't matter. All will hook successfully into the Internet. And of course, a motor. To access the Internet, you need to establish an account with an Internet service provider. Your service provider gives you the needed link or connection into the network. You'll need some type of specialized Internet software. The needed type will depend on the Internet service provider and the connection option you choose. Patience and a sense of humor will go a long way when you encounter your first glitches on the Internet. The technology is still evolving, but the vast array of data and information you'll find makes your effort worthwhile. Let's talk a bit now about your specific connection options. Internet service providers offer several different types of connections, and these connection options are changing rapidly. That said, current connection options can basically be broken down into three main categories, online services, SLIP slash PPP, and direct access. You should research these options and the Internet service providers in your area to see which best meets your needs. Here's a checklist of items to consider when making your decision. Speed. Your connection speed will determine how quickly you get access to the Internet resources you're searching for. Technical support. Determine what level of technical support your Internet service provider will offer you. Do they offer extensive user help, or once your computer is connected, are you basically on your own? Price. Price can be a critical factor. Does your service provider charge a flat rate or buy hour or a minute? If you have a slow connection speed, for instance, and are being charged by the hour, charges can add up fast when you're trying to download files. User-friendliness. How user-friendly is your software interface? Is it a graphical point-and-click interface or text-based? How user-friendly is your installation of this software? If you like to tinker with computer code, this may not be much of a concern. For others, it could be a priority. Level of access. What level of access to the Internet tools do you want? Will e-mail suffice or do you want access to the full range of Internet tools, including FTP, Gopher, and World Wide Web? Do you want access that will support the multimedia offerings of the Internet? Service providers have different options and not all offer full access to all the Internet tools. With these factors as our basic checklist, let's look at the specific connection options Internet service providers are now offering. Online services. Companies such as Prodigy, Compusr, Delphi, and America Online started out by offering value-added online information services to their customers. Recently, they also began providing gateway access to the Internet. The online services began their Internet offerings with e-mail and have just started providing Gopher and World Wide Web. The advantages of online services are convenient access, full technical support, and user-friendly software. The disadvantages are slow connection speed, expensive hourly rates, and limited access to all Internet tools. Slip Slash PPP. With an online service, you're limited to what your Internet service provider offers when accessing the Internet. If you want access to the full range of Internet tools and offerings, you might consider establishing a Slip Slash PPP connection. With this, your service provider lets you directly connect to the Internet. Your computer is no longer just a display terminal. Instead, it is directly hooked to the net. This means you can use the full range of Internet tools, including multimedia. You can use these tools simultaneously and at a more rapid rate. If you think that you or your organization will be a frequent Internet user, Slip Slash PPP may be the option for you. The advantages of this option are full access to Internet tools, declining costs, user-friendly software interface, and faster rates of transmission. The disadvantages are the level of technical support varies and software installations are often difficult. Direct access or a permanent connection offers the fastest, most comprehensive, and most flexible Internet access. But watch out, it's also the most expensive. Because of its cost, it generally is only a viable option for large organizations. A direct access link to the Internet is usually through a leased phone line. The organization's local area network, or LAN, is then connected to the computer or workstation identified as the Internet node. Now, this option has full access to Internet tools, a fast rate of transmission, good technical support, and user-friendly interfaces. However, it's expensive, often prohibitive itself. The Internet, with its lure of electronic communication and rapid access to people and vast amounts of data and information, is providing an essential gateway to the information age of the 21st century. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics challenges you to take advantage of the resources this new form of communication affords. We're here to assist you in your early steps of Internet exploration. The world of transportation information is yours for the taking.