[ih] 'Internet' vs 'internet'

[Joe Touch]

The AP and New York Times need educating on this issue too.

At least one key issue, IMO, is that both variants have distinct meaning.

Joe

> On Sep 29, 2018, at 9:30 AM, Alan Maitland <AMaitland at Commerco.Com> wrote:
> 
> +1
> 
>> On 9/29/2018 8:12 AM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>> 
>> Dear Science News editors:
>> 
>> I was extremely saddened to see, in the latest issue of 'Science News', that
>> you all have apparently succumbed to the fashion of using 'internet' to refer
>> to the Internet. While I expect to see this sort of error in general
>> publications, it's most unfortunate to see a magazine focused on technical
>> matters make the same mistake.
>> 
>> Let me explain.
>> 
>> An 'internet' is a generally, and widely, accepted technical term for a
>> collection of disparate physical networks (fiber optic links, wireless
>> network, Ethernets, etc) connected together with a particular type of packet
>> switch, called 'routers'. (There are other kinds of packet switch, but they
>> have mostly fallen into desuetude now.)
>> 
>> The 'Internet' is the massive internet to which most people of the world now
>> have access. (See how that sentence doesn't make sense without distinguishing
>> one with the capital?)
>> 
>> There are, however, still many other internets, which are not connected to the
>> Internet. (Google "air gap" if you aren't aware of this - and again, the
>> different spelling is crucial to the sentenced being comprehensible.)
>> 
>> The people who invented internets, and the Internet, carefully chose to use
>> the capital precisely to distinguish between the two. (I recall the
>> discussion.) The Internet Engineering Task Force, the body responsible for the
>> technical specifications for internets and the Internet, continues to use that
>> distinction.
>> 
>> Just as there are many 'white houses', but only one 'White House', there is an
>> important distinction between 'internet(s)' and the 'Internet'.
>> 
>> So I hope you will update your editorial guidlines to note that the term for
>> _the_ Internet is spelled with a capital.
>> 
>>       Noel
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>> 
> 
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