Q. 2. Read the passage given below:
In a very short period of time the internet has had a profound impact on the way we live.
Since the Internet was made operational in 1983, it has lowere both the costs of
communication and the barriers to creative expression. It has challenged old business
models and enabled new ones. It has provided access to information on a scale never before
achievable.
It succeeded because we designed it to be flexible and open. These two features have allowed
it to accommodate innovation without massive changes to its infrastructure. An open,
borderless and standardized platform means that barriers to entry are low, competition is
high, interoperability is assured and innovation is rapid.
The beauty of an open platform is that there are no gatekeepers. For centuries, access to and
creation of information was controlled by the few. The internet has changed that --and is
rapidly becoming the platform for everyone, by everyone.
Of course, it still has a way to go. Today there are only about 2.3 billion internet users,
representing roughly 30% of the world’s population. Much of the information that they can
access online is in English, but this is changing rapidly.
The technological progress of the internet has also set social change in motion. As with other
enabling inventions before it, from the telegraph to television, some will worry about the
effects of broader access to information -- the printing press and the rise in literacy that it
effected were, after all, long seen as destabilising. Similar concerns about the internet are
occasionally raised, but if
we take a long view, I’m confident that its benefits far outweigh the discomforts of learning
to integrate it into our lives. The internet and the world wide web are what they are becauseliterally millions of people have made it so. It is a grand collaboration.
It would be foolish not to acknowledge that the openness of the internet has had a price.
Security is an increasingly important issue and cannot be ignored. If there is an area of vital
research and development for the internet, this is one of them. I am increasingly confident,
however, that techniques and practices exist to make the internet safer and more secure
while retaining its essentially open quality.
After working on the internet and its predecessors for over four decades, I’m more optimistic
about its promise than I have ever been. We are all free to innovate on the net every day.
The internet is a tool of the people, built by the people for the people and it must stay that
way.
(a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage make notes on it using
recognisable abbreviations (minimum four) wherever necessary. Use a format you
consider appropriate. Supply a suitable title. (5 marks)
(b) Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words. (3 marks)
Posted by Archita Sheoran
4 months, 4 weeks ago
