[ih] 'Internet' vs 'internet'

[Noel Chiappa]

    > A recent change to lowercase "i" in internet is to correspond with AP's
    > new ruling on the word.

Ah, I thought that might be it. The AP, alas, is wrong - and let me explain why.
(And if you could pass this along too, I'd be grateful.)


Discussion on the internet-history e-mail list brought up what is hopefully a
telling point: the words 'internet' and 'Internet' have _different meanings_.
Thus, one simply _cannot_ substite one form of the word for the other.

So, in the technical world, 'Internet' is likely to persist. I would hope that
a magazine focused on science and technology will follow along. Use of
'internet' is as grating to professionals in the information technology world
as use of 'germ' in place of 'bacteria' and 'virus' would be among biologists.


The argument made in some media spheres (e.g. the NYT) that new technologies
are often introduced with a capital, and then lower-cased at they become
common ("phonograph" was one example I saw) ignores the facts of i) the
different meanings, and ii) the fact there is only one 'Internet' (and thus
well suited to following the standard English rule that proper nouns are
capitalized), whereas with most new technologies, there are multiple
instances (there are - or were! - many phonographs).

There are many white houses, but only one White House.

Thanks!

      Noel