Status and conditions of Internet as a communication medium in Poland, Europe and worldwide

Włodzimierz Gogołek

Contemporary measure of changes in information trade is a growing number of Internet users, which number has exceeded 10% of world population. Europe has the biggest number of Internauts. It has become possible due to, inter alia, proper telecommunication infrastructure and information hardware. In 2002 one milliard of computers was in use in the world, and it is anticipated that in the coming years this number will be growing with 9% annually. In Poland, it is estimated that over 1/3 of persons above 15 years of age, i.e. approximately 8,5 million people are users of the Net. Contemporary information technologies extremely efficiently enable processing, transmission and access to all kinds of information. It seems that one has created conditions for unlimited transfer of information. Paradoxically, however, it so appears that the power of technologies used for this purpose enables very precise selection, personalization of information received on-line - thus more limiting than widening the range of received information.

KEYWORDS

Internet, information, information technologies, Internauts