Green IT Toolkit

The Internet: Saviour of the planet?

Jeff Davies for ZDNet.com GameSpot Europe

Published: 07 Feb 2003 16:41 GMT

Two years ago, a recession started that was accelerated by the infamous 11 September attacks on the United States, and has been afflicting the world economy. However, the usual mass unemployment, destitution, and pop bands with whingeing songs about how everything is rubbish have been strangely absent.

It is my belief that there is a strong almost invisible undercurrent in part caused by the communications revolution buoying up the global economy (I think it goes far beyond the United States now).

There are major attributes differentiating the world economy today from the situation at the time of the last recession.

Hypercommunication giving rise to nano-niches:
a. Mobile phones are ubiquitous, allowing small one-person businesses to be as contactable as larger businesses with secretaries and support staff. People advertising their old sofa, or car or computer are contactable in a way that only professionals could have been ten years ago.

b. The Internet allows small numbers of like-minded individuals geographically disparate to function as a nano-niche. This was possible pre-Internet but had a high cost (in terms of communication latency and effort). The plummetting of the cost of communications has given rise to a vast number of nano-niches where people can trade small quantities of low value, limited interest products. (Individuals trade far more than ten years ago.)

Some major technological steps have manifested themselves as Internet services:
1. Search engines such as Google revolutionised searching for items on the Internet. By using 7000+ Linux servers in parallel, plus some innovative software designed in-house, they conquered the speed/number of searched pages problem that had become a major bottleneck in competing search engines. Obviously nano-niches could not function without a usable search engine (aka information directory).

As yet a move to inject more information into Web content via XML and therefore searching using Topic Maps, etc. has largely been unrealised. Moving to more intelligent searching is an evolutionary step that will happen, but the current generations are more than adequate.

2. Auction sites such as eBay created global markets where anyone can sell their wares (usually secondhand). Low value items of interest to one person in a million can be bought and sold whereas once they would have been consigned to the rubbish heap. Goods can be easily placed along with photos from a digital camera. Funds are transferred electronically, and best of all, the bidding system ensures you can sell an item for an appropriate price.

Numerous people make a living now buying and selling through eBay, sometimes as a small business. Without the Internet, the cost of these communications would make this business model unworkable.