[ih] 'Internet' vs 'internet'

[Jack Haverty]

IMHO it's more complicated than just defining means of the words.  In
particular, context changes the meaning, and The Internet (how's that
for yet another term) is more than just the Internet.

I'm not sure how things have evolved since the 90s when I last delved
into the innards.  There was of course a public Internet, with all the
same residents we know today - CNN, yahoo, etc.

But in addition, even then there were many private internets, where
people had simply bought equipment and circuits, downloaded appropriate
software, and built their own.

At Oracle, we had our own world-wide internet, and assigned our own IP
addresses, regardless of whether or not the particular number was in use
in the public Internet.  But we were connected to the Internet through
computers which were dual-homed, and thus could receive email, use FTP,
etc. as needed. We could interact with the obvious players, e.g.,
Yahoo!, but also with computers inside our customers' private internets.

Other organizations did the same.  It had started with military and
governmental clones, and corporate IT organizations followed their lead.

So, within an organization, the term 'internet' depended on the context.
 Most commonly, 'the internet' or 'the net' or even 'the Internet'
referred to the corporate system, i.e., *our* internet.  But if the
conversation was about something happening in the broader world outside
the organization, 'the internet' et al meant the public Internet.

Sometimes we said 'the Oracle Internet' or 'the ARPA internet' to
disambiguate.  The term 'intranet' was popular for a while.   But most
commonly you could, and had to, infer the meaning from the context.

If anything, it's gotten even more complicated.  I've encountered many
people who are 'on the Internet', with very different meanings.  E.g.,
to some people, 'on the Internet' means the friends they can interact
with on Facebook.   Or websites they can use, ... but only if they have
an account.

I have a tiny internet in my house, with routers, hosts, file servers,
TVs, attic fans, and other devices on my internet.  They don't have
unique world-wide IP addresses (because of NAT).  Some of them can
communicate with things out on the public Internet.  But not all
(hopefully).  Some can even communicate with computers inside someone
else's otherwise private Internet - exactly who my devices talk to is
very difficult to tell.

Perhaps it's all about connectivity?  Does the ability to exchange IP
packets define that 2 devices are on the same internet?  Or email?  Or
tweets?   Or posts?  Or ...?

I can establish voice links between my mobile phone, my landline phone
and my desktop computer.  Does that mean all telephone handsets are on
the Internet|internet?

I can't send an IP packet from my tablet to the camera on the ISS.  But
I can fire up an app which puts a realtime image on my tablet of the
world flowing by below the ISS right now.  Are my tablet and the ISS
camera on the Internet?

All of this is what I at least think of as 'The Internet', and
terminology of the inner pieces is still unclear.

What is the Internet?  How do you tell if your particular device is
connected to it?  The dictionary definitions seem incomplete.

The Internet is Kleenex becoming kleenex.

/Jack Haverty