By Mark Wilcox, Campus Web Administrator

Recent Developments

Our central Web server, www.unt.edu, set new records for November. For October and November 1998 we have averaged over 3.8 million hits for those two months. To put that in perspective, we had only 1.5 million hits in October 1997 . We also averaged over 80,000 unique computers that connected to us. I would estimate that to be somewhere between 50 to 90,000 users. Not bad!

We also added our 100th WebCT class into production in November. We have about 60 or so being made ready for Spring. I expect enrollment in WebCT will be somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000 students this spring.

AOL, Netscape, Sun, and the Future of the Internet*

Probably the biggest computer news in the past month was America On-Line buying out Netscape. If you own stock in Netscape you definitely came out a winner. For the rest of us, it will remain to be seen what happens. I generally think it will be a good move. Netscape needed a solid cash flow and AOL needed a way out of it's browser deal with Microsoft. Sun Microsystems, who is also involved in the deal, gets access to the Netscape server developers and gains a way to continue to make sure JAVA is on the desktop. While this is a business decision (and as a business decision I think it was a wise one), it is also a good thing for computing in general. Many people are worried that AOL will just brand stuff Netscape, while allowing the company to disappear. I don't think this will be the case. AOL has let CompuServe and ICQ run pretty much as they did before AOL bought them. They even still compete with these companies to some degree. AOL also realizes that Netscape's best resource, it's employees, needs to be retained at all costs. Otherwise they're likely to head out the door and go work for someone else like Microsoft. Netscape's consulting business also gets a leg up with this deal.

Another benefit will be for companies that want to get on the Net. Now this new company can set you up with server hardware built by Sun (who makes the majority of the server hardware that runs the backbone of the Internet), running Netscape software (the people who "built" the Web) and if you need help getting your employees on-line from home or on the road, AOL is there for you (and with 14 million subscribers they know something about helping people getting hooked up).

This of course isn't the idealistic picture of the Net where everyone has free access. A good chunk of the people on the Net are there trying to make money or cut costs for their company by using technology to slim down their company. This AOL/Netscape/Sun entity can really help with that.

This new entity also isn't the death of the Net as we know it either. The Net is way too vast for that. If Microsoft, which controls over 90% of the desktop market, couldn't reel it in I doubt anyone else can either. The new merger just makes it easier to get more people on-line. And that, I think, is the most important thing for the long term prospects of the Net.

Until next time.

Mark

* This month's Network Connection also discusses the future of the Internet, but from a different perspective.