The expert says sharing knowledge is more profitable than hoarding it.

Is the Internet going to be the only means of communication that will exist in the future? It looks like the experts are convinced about that. According to them almost everything except physical objects will travel through the ether. Decades ago the American Television serial ‘Star Trek’ showed people and material beamed from the command ship ‘The Enterprise’ on to the surface of planets with boring regularity. But even if do not reach those levels in the short term we are going to see more and more users accessing the net for work and leisure.

The maximum usage worldwide according to surveys is for watching pornography. The citizens of Pakistan and India are the unchallenged leaders. It is not because others are not inclined to watch sex videos but because the citizens of India and Pakistan outnumber the rest. The Chinese don’t get to see stuff that their Govt doesn’t deem appropriate.

But on a serious note it is in the dissemination of information that the Internet has caused a revolution. No more stories like Ekalavya and Dronacharya. The old guru sishya parampara has gone for a toss given that anybody can access any information with or without a teacher. Nobody can be kept away from anything for very long. Even if you secure the information with security barriers, passwords and encryption it is only a matter of time before someone cracks them. The Internet has also made it possible for an individual to be gainfully employed in half a dozen ventures at the same time. You could buy and sell almost anything over the net. You could deliver the latest technological information and tips to the farmer in the remotest part of the world. It gives us hope that we could reverse what looks like the unstoppable march of rural folk like lemmings into urban areas.

The Internet could also cut out the middlemen in a vast number of trades who no longer serve any purpose. It could keep farmers in the loop whether it is for information about the weather, air temperatures, wholesale and retail prices of their produce and a hundred other bits of information. It may help reverse global warning, reduce air pollution, crime, corruption and many other modern day problems.

Earlier where could a villager or the resident of a small town go to get information on stuff like this? Could he get it from the schoolmaster or the postmaster in his village? Not likely, but now you can get all that through the mobile phone with which you can log on to the world-wide-web. This has led to a new set of entrepreneurs mushrooming all over the country. Even philanthropy has been made simple. It may not be long before a person can contribute even one rupee for a good cause while on the move.

Listen to Kiruba Shankar, a passionate votary of the Internet. He confesses that some of his earlier enthusiasm is now tempered by reality. The infrastructure needed like improved Internet speed and spread is still poor in our country but he gives you a brief glimpse into the enormous potential of the Internet.