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Protocol), understood as a service or an application that makes it possible for the individual user to select and,
for example, copy files over the Internet from a host or file server to his own computer. Gopher, understood as
an information search service or program that, using a menu hierarchy, makes it possible for the individual
user to navigate through, find, and retrieve information on the Internet. World Wide Web, understood as a
global network of interconnected documents which allows the individual information consumer, using the
principle of hypertext links, to jump from one to another. And there are of course various other forms of online
information and data base services. This pattern can also be found in a public service version (e.g. university
libraries) which have predominated, as well as a commercial version (e.g. large media conglomerates,
archives) which now appear to be taking over the dominant role.
But the consumer oriented traffic patterns are not the only ones that influence the Internet. The
registration pattern is f.ex. also represented, although in a somewhat less dominant (or less visible) way. In its
‘on request’ version it can be seen in shopping systems, ticketing, registration procedures, financial
transactions, various forms of Internet voting, etc. And in the ‘without request’ version, it can be seen in: the
logging of information traffic, the counting of homepage visitors, as well as other forms of collection and
processing of the electronic fingerprints left behind while moving about the Internet. Once again there is both a
public service version (Usenet polling, etc.) and a commercial version (shoping systems, etc.)
For some time now, it has been the general impression, and also a point made ideologically, that
computer networks, and the Internet in particular, represent the absolute opposite of the transmitting pattern. It
has been claimed that the Internet is not a broadcast media, is not a one-to-many form of communication, but
that it is, on the contrary, designed as a many-to-many form of communication where it is possible for
everyone to express themselves, i.e. a conversational pattern. However, it does not appear to be quite that
simple. [Steinberg 1996] among others, has recently pointed out that as »the Internet grows to support new
services beyond e-mail and file transfer, its antipathy to broadcast is starting to seem more like a bug than a
feature«. If one were to set up an Internet service from Copenhagen today, which delivered updates of a certain
type of information at regular intervals, and there were 100 customers in California, 100 identical copies of the
message would be sent around the world over the Internet. Here is a situation where it would obviously be
much more economical and net-efficient to send one message to, say, San Francisco and from there send it in
100 directions. »What’s needed is some way to do one-to-many communication over the Net« concludes
Steinberg.
This type of information traffic is beginning to be found on the Internet f.ex. via the so-called Multicast
Backbone (MBone). The idea behind the Mbone is that Internet’s infrastructure and protocols are used to
transport data but with the help of various supplemental algorithms that eliminate the redundant data
transmission. The goal of multicasting is thus to minimize network traffic and thereby burden the Internet as
little as possible. This approach is naturally becoming more important as the Internet becomes more and more
overloaded with traffic. Via multicasting it is thus possible to send data to supporting sites and thereby, for
example, transmit live broadcasts of technical conferences, real time radio, TV or multimedia applications to
thousands of computers all over the world. In Steinberg’s words: »Let’s just hope that the Net can be made to
support broadcasting without actually becoming a broadcast medium« [Steinberg 1996]. It should be noted,
however, that besides transmission the Mbone is capable of supporting interactive two-way services, i.e. the
consultation, the conversation as well as the registration patterns. Some odd examples of the transmitting
pattern are the famous WWW homepage, The Trojan Room Coffee Machine, which constantly updates
pictures of the coffee machine at the University of Cambridge computer laboratory, and the WWW homepage
The San Francisco City Camera, that transmits a similarly updated panorama picture of San Francisco from a
camera placed on top of the Fairmont Hotel. The same pattern is also apparent, aside from the synchronous
aspect, in mailing lists and subscriptions to newsgroups where a number of individual consumers are sent the
same amount of information, especially when a large number of so-called lurkers are involved. Like TV and
radio, the transmitting pattern can also be found in both a public service (scientific conferences, lectures, etc.)
and a commercial version (entertainment etc.). See [Fig. 11] for an illustration of the eight information traffic
patterns within the framework of the three dimensional matrix.
It should now be obvious that the Internet, when considered from a general point of view, as one unified
medium, is not exclusively in a single matrix position. On the contrary, it assumes the character of what
[Bordewijk & Kaam 1986] describe as »multipattern-services«, i.e. services where »several patterns occur …
simultaneously«. The Internet, and computer networks in general, seem to share this ‘multipatterned’ feature
with a number of other contemporary information services or systems such as telephones and television. From
originally being a prototype for the idealized conversation pattern, the telephone and its specialized services
now also provide consultation (e.g. weather forecasts), registration (e.g. settling of accounts) and even
transmission patterns (e.g. live transmissions of debates from the parliament). Television, which was originally
a prototype for the idealized transmitting pattern, can now be found in its advanced form as interactive
television which also provides consultation (video-on-demand), registration (wagering), and even conversation
patterns (video-phone) (see [Jensen 1996a] and [Jensen 1996b]). It is, nevertheless, reasonable to maintain that