Masonry Magazine February 1996 Page. 10
WHAT KIND of impact will the Information Superhighway have on the construction industry? All the signs so far point to a BIG impact, one that will affect a contractor's ability to gain a competitive advantage, reduce costs, and increase profitability. Yet for many contractors, just knowing where to start is enough of a challenge, let alone trying to figure out how to use the new communications technology in their businesses. Where does a contractor begin the journey in cyberspace? What's the most direct route to take?
Construction On the Internet
The Internet in the nineties has blossomed into the most powerful route to information.
By JIM LUCKER & STUART DIEBEL
FMI Corporation
The Internet
The Internet is at the heart of all the talk about the electronic superhighway. Developed in the 1960s as a standard protocol for government computers to communicate, the Internet has blossomed in the nineties into the most powerful route to information. Much of this growth is due to a software called the World Wide Web that makes it easy to navigate computers connected to the Internet through the use of a graphics interface.
Today over five million computers in 140 countries are connected through the Internet. The Net currently averages about 12 million users each day, and with the recent connection to services such as Prodigy and America Online that number is expected to double over the next few years.
With the large number of users on the Web, the main challenge is to find the information you're looking for. Searching for specific categories is analogous to arriving in Manhattan with the name of a restaurant and having no idea where it is. You may get lucky and find a phone book or a tour guide, or you might be lost for days. Several organizations are developing directories of the Web, some with excellent results. The services offer searches by subject or keyword.
The home page and associated Universal Resource Locator (URL) address code are the keys to navigating the World Wide Web successfully. Each on-line group or company is assigned a URL address, such as "www.yourco.com," which brings users to the group's location on the Internet.
This base address is called the "home page." At this location a computer runs 24 hours a day providing the information that the group or company wishes to be available to Internet users. At any point in the search, a user can return to the home page with the click of a mouse. There are currently more than four million home pages on the World Wide Web.
The Global Construction Network
The Global Construction Network (GCN) is an Internet site dedicated to the construction industry. It offers anyone connected to the Internet a place to start when seeking information and services involving construction. Its address is http://www.fminet.com, and it is also accessible through on-line search services such as the Yahoo Search Engine (http://www.yahoo.com). The primary aim of the GCN is to bring the best of the electronic communications industry to construction.
The Global Construction Network serves as an information storehouse and switchboard. On this "page," owners, general contractors, subs, Continued on Page 55
10 MASONRY-JANUARY/FEBRUARY, 1996