Title: EFFECTS OF E-COMMUNICATION ON CORPORATE ORGANIZATIONS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Electronic communication otherwise known as E-Communication is a type of communication carried out using electronic media. Such communications allow transmission of message or information using computer systems, fax machine, e-mail, tele and/or video conferencing and satellite network. People can easily share conversation, picture(s), image(s), sound, graphics, maps, interactive software and many other things. Due to electronic technology, jobs, working locations and cultures are changing and therefore people can easily get access to worldwide communication without any physical movement.
Experts have defined electronic communication as the transmission of information using advanced techniques such as computer modems, facsimile machines, voice mail, electronic mail, teleconferencing, video cassettes, and private television networks.” 1.1 Background of the Study
Communication is said to be the imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium. It could be between two or more persons, human and machines or any other communicable entity.
Group communication can be carried out through various means such as smoke signals and drums which was common in ancient Africa, America and parts of Asian, the fixed semaphore in ancient Europe and electronic means which is most prominent, popular and recent.
This research details on the effects of communication in cooperate organizations using electronic means. 1.2 Statement of Problem
Following the advent of electronic communication, most corporate organizations are yet to take advantage of this fast, reliable and cost-effective means of communication, this research shall depict the benefits of e-communication on cooperate organizations so as to encourage its deployment which will in turn improve the organization’s Communication Speed and also create a flexible access to information. It will provide a platform for rapid communication against the manual communication method which can be time-consuming. 1.3 Motivation for the Study
The importance and mandatory use of one form of communication or the other by all humans and animals alike made the choice for a research work on issues concerning communication very important, hence a choice for a topic like this. Communication is needed for decision making, co-ordination, control and planning. Communication is also required for processing information in the accounting department, finance department, personnel department, establishment, of public relations, sales department, market research, production department, purchase department etc. Communication with the government, shareholders and prospective investors, customers etc. is also required for the day to day functioning of the business concern. Conventional process of communication is not sufficient to meet the multidimensional needs of corporate organizations. So, the need for modern communication technology emerges to meet the desired need of modern business enterprises. Worldwide communication has been facilitated by the electronic transmission of data which connects individuals, regardless of geographic location, almost instantly.
Despite the influx of communication gadgets in recent times, some organizations still maintain their antique method of communication hence, a research that will enlighten such organizations on the benefits of electronic communication. 1.4 Significance of the Study
Most corporate organizations already know that electronic communication is a better and faster means of communication but may not know the consequences of deploying it in their organizations. This research will improve the existing knowledge by enlightening such organizations on the effects of electronic communication and also serve as a guide in choosing a mode of communication that best suites the organization communications needs. 1.5 Aims and Objectives of the Study
This research is aimed at acquainting corporate organizations on the need to deploy electronic communication systems since this method of communication has been proven to be fast, reliable and can be deployed into various organizations according to their needs.
The aim of this research will be achieved through the under-listed objectives; 1. Examine the need to deploy electronic communications system 2. Balance the comparison between electronic communication and the antique method of communication. 3. Enlighten corporate organizations on the implications of adopting electronic communication, such implications may be the cost, effectiveness, reliability etc. 4. Develop a prototype intranet that will enhance communication amongst a group of people. 1.6 Scope of the Study
This research shall cover the ancient communications method, the invention of electronic communications method, its deployments into the corporate world and its effects on the cooperate organization that may deploy it.

1.7 Limitations of Study
Although this research will be carefully carried out and will also achieve its aims, there exist some unavoidable limitations. They are listed as follows; * Time: Due to the time limit, fewer numbers of corporate organizations will be understudied whereas the study should have involved larger number of corporate organizations for a more balanced result * Access: This research shall, to a significant extent require having access to people, organizations and documents. If for whatever reason, access is denied or otherwise limited, it will negatively affect the timely accomplishment of this research * Self-reported data: In a situation where respondents read the question and select a response to the questionnaire by themselves without my interference, the result will be limited judging from the fact that it rarely can be independently verified and may contain several potential sources of bias.

1.8 Definition of Terms
ARPANET: An acronym for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
Dot: A small round mark or spot.
Electrochemical: The chemical processes that cause electrons to move. This movement of electrons is called electricity, which can be generated by movements of electrons from one element to another in a reaction known as an oxidation-reduction ("redox") reaction.
E-communication - Electronic communication
Electromagnet: A soft metal core made into a magnet by the passage of electric current through a coil surrounding it.
Firewall: A network device for controlling network security and access rules. 1
Morse: An alphabet or code in which letters are represented by combinations of long and short light or sound signals\
PDAs: Personal Digital Assistants
Router: This is an internetworking device that forwards packets between networks by processing the routing information included in the packet or datagram
Teleconferencing: A process where a number of phone lines are 'bridged together' so that people can talk to each other across all the lines and the same time.
Network Packet: A formatted unit of data carried by a packet-switched network

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
What we know of as electronic communications originated with the telegraph. The telegraph was a simple electrical circuit that transmitted electrical impulses across country via wire. It had two signals, a dot and a dash. This formed a code that could be interpreted as words. This code was Morse code. Over time, the code was translated into all languages and became state-of-the-art technology. It permitted coast to coast data transmissions and formed the basis for facsimile transmission as well.
This review shall encompass the Ancient Communication Systems, Electrical / Electronic Communication Inventions and Electronic Communication Tools. It shall also highlight the advantages and disadvantages of electronic communication 2.9 Ancient Communication Systems
Early telecommunications included smoke signals and drums. Talking drums were used by natives in Africa, New Guinea and South America, and smoke signals in North America and China. Contrary to what one might think, these systems were often used to do more than merely announce the presence of a military camp. (Native American Smoke Signals, William Tomkins, 2005.)

Greek hydraulic semaphore systems were used as early as the 4th century BC. The hydraulic semaphores, which worked with water filled vessels and visual signals, functioned as optical telegraphs. However, they could only utilize a very limited range of pre-determined messages, and as with all such optical telegraphs could only be deployed during good visibility conditions. (E. A. Marland, Early Electrical Communication, Abelard-Schuman Ltd, London 1964)

Fig 1: Code of letters and symbols for Chappe telegraph
During the middle ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could only pass a single bit of information, so the meaning of the message such as "the enemy has been sighted" had to be agreed upon in advance. One notable instance of their use was during the Spanish Armada, when a beacon chain relayed a signal from Plymouth to London that signaled the arrival of the Spanish warships. (Ritchie, Leitch (1835). Scott and Scotland. London)
French engineer Claude Chappe began working on visual telegraphy in 1790, using pairs of "clocks" whose hands pointed at different symbols. These did not prove quite viable at long distances, and Chappe revised his model to use two sets of jointed wooden beams. Operators moved the beams using cranks and wires. He built his first telegraph line between Lille and Paris, followed by a line from Strasbourg to Paris. In 1794, a Swedish engineer, Abraham Edelcrantz built a quite different system from Stockholm to Drottningholm. As opposed to Chappe's system which involved pulleys rotating beams of wood, Edelcrantz's system relied only upon shutters and was therefore faster.
However semaphore as a communication system suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers often at intervals of only ten to thirty kilometres (six to nineteen miles). As a result, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880.

2.2. Electrical / Electronic Communication Inventions
Listed below are various inventions that culminated to what is known today as electronic communication
2.2.1 Electrical Telegraph
Experiments on communication with electricity, initially unsuccessful, started in about 1726. Scientists including Laplace, Ampère, and Gauss were involved.

Fig 2: Stock telegraph ticker machine by Thomas Edison
An early experiment in electrical telegraphy was an 'electrochemical' telegraph created by the German physician, anatomist and inventor Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring in 1809, based on an earlier, less robust design of 1804 by Spanish polymath and scientist Francisco Salva Campillo. Both their designs employed multiple wires (up to 35) in order to visually represent almost all Latin letters and numerals. Thus, messages could be conveyed electrically up to a few kilometers (in von Sömmerring's design), with each of the telegraph receiver's wires immersed in a separate glass tube of acid. An electric current was sequentially applied by the sender through the various wires representing each digit of a message; at the recipient's end the currents electrolyzed the acid in the tubes in sequence, releasing streams of hydrogen bubbles next to each associated letter or numeral. The telegraph receiver's operator would visually observe the bubbles and could then record the transmitted message, albeit at a very low baud rate. The principal disadvantage to the system was its prohibitive cost, due to having to manufacture and string-up the multiple wire circuits it employed, as opposed to the single wire (with ground return) used by later telegraphs. (E. A. Marland, Early Electrical Communication, Abelard-Schuman Ltd, London 1964)
A practical electrical telegraph was proposed in January 1837 by William Fothergill Cooke, who considered it an improvement on the existing "electromagnetic telegraph"; an improved five-needle, six-wire system developed in partnership with Charles Wheatstone entered commercial use in 1838. It used the deflection of needles to represent messages and started operating over twenty-one kilometres (thirteen miles) of the Great Western Railway on 9 April 1839. Both Wheatstone and Cooke viewed their device as "an improvement to the [existing] electromagnetic telegraph" not as a new device.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Samuel Morse developed a version of the electrical telegraph which he demonstrated on 2 September 1837. Alfred Vail saw this demonstration and joined Morse to develop the register—a telegraph terminal that integrated a logging device for recording messages to paper tape. This was demonstrated successfully over three miles (five kilometres) on 6 January 1838 and eventually over (sixty-four kilometres) between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore on 24 May 1844. The patented invention proved lucrative and by 1851 telegraph lines in the United States spanned over 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometres). Morse's most important technical contribution to this telegraph was the simple and highly efficient Morse Code, co-developed with Vail, which was an important advance over Wheatstone's more complicated and expensive system, and required just two wires. The communications efficiency of the Morse code preceded that of the Huffman code in digital communications by over 100 years, but Morse and Vail developed the code purely empirically, with shorter codes for more frequent letters. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_telegraph)
The submarine cable across the English Channel, wire coated in gutta percha, was laid in 1851. Transatlantic cables installed in 1857 and 1858 only operated for a few days or weeks (carried messages of greeting back and forth between James Buchanan and Queen Victoria) before they failed. The project to lay a replacement line was delayed for five years by the American Civil War. The first successful transatlantic telegraph cable was completed on 27 July 1866, allowing transatlantic telecommunication for the first time. (History of the Transatlantic Cable – Dr. E.O.W. Whitehouse and the 1858 trans-Atlantic cable, retrieved 2010 04 10)
2.2.2 Telephone
The next major communications invention was the telephone. The “plain old telephone” has changed very little since it was invented in the early 19th century. It has just become more popular and accepted since its invention which is based on earlier work with harmonic (multi-signal) telegraphs. The first commercial telephone services were set up in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London. It was patented by Alexander Gram Bell in 1876 but more than likely invented by Innocenzo Manzetti and was originally called the “speaking telegraph”.
Alexander Graham Bell held the master patent for the telephone that was needed for such services in both countries. All other patents for electric telephone devices and features flowed from this master patent. Credit for the invention of the electric telephone has been frequently disputed, and new controversies over the issue have arisen from time-to-time. As with other great inventions such as radio, television, the light bulb, and the digital computer, there were several inventors who did pioneering experimental work on voice transmission over a wire, who then improved on each other's ideas. However, the key innovators were Alexander Graham Bell and Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who created the first telephone company, the Bell Telephone Company in the United States, which later evolved into American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), at times the world's largest phone company.
The first commercial telephone services were set up in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven, Connecticut, and London, England. The technology grew quickly from this point, with inter-city lines being built and telephone exchanges in every major city of the United States by the mid-1880s. Despite this, transatlantic voice communication remained impossible for customers until January 7, 1927 when a connection was established using radio. However no cable connection existed until TAT-1 was inaugurated on September 25, 1956 providing 36 telephone circuits. (MacLeod, Elizabeth. Alexander Graham Bell: An Inventive Life, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
In 1880, Bell and co-inventor Charles Sumner Tainter conducted the world's first wireless telephone call via modulated light beams projected by photophones. The scientific principles of their invention would not be utilized for several decades, when they were first deployed in military and fiber-optic communications.
The first transatlantic telephone cable (which incorporated hundreds of electronic amplifiers) was not operational until 1956, only six years before the first commercial telecommunications satellite, Telstar, was launched into space (History of the Transatlantic Cable – Dr. E.O.W. Whitehouse and the 1858 trans-Atlantic cable, retrieved 2010 04 10)
The history indicates that the telephone as actually being demonstrated in England some nine years before Alexander Bell filed his patent in America, there was nothing as convenient as the Alexander Bell’s phone until wireless radio transmissions became fashionable quite a while later.
2.2.3 Radio and Television
In 1832, James Lindsay gave a classroom demonstration of wireless telegraphy via conductive water to his students. By 1854, he was able to demonstrate a transmission across the Firth of Tay from Dundee, Scotland, to Woodhaven, a distance of about two miles (3 km), again using water as the transmission medium.
Over several years starting in 1894 the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi built the first complete, commercially successful wireless telegraphy system based on airborne electromagnetic waves (radio transmission) In December 1901, Marconi established wireless communication between St. John's, Newfoundland and Poldhu Cornwall
(England), earning him a Nobel Prize in Physics (which he shared with Karl Braun). 1909. In 1900 Reginald Fessenden was able to wirelessly transmit a human voice.
On March 25, 1925, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird publicly demonstrated the transmission of moving silhouette pictures at the London department store Selfridge's. Baird's system relied upon the fast-rotating Nipkow disk, and thus it became known as the mechanical television. In October 1925, Baird was successful in obtaining moving pictures with halftone shades, which were by most accounts the first true television pictures. This led to a public demonstration of the improved device on 26 January 1926 again at Selfridges. His invention formed the basis of semi-experimental broadcasts done by the British Broadcasting Corporation beginning September 30, 1929.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Broadcasting_Corporation, Albert Abramson, The History of Television, 1942)
For most of the twentieth century televisions used the cathode ray tube invented by Karl Braun. The first version of such a television to show promise was produced by Philo Farnsworth, who demonstrated crude silhouette images to his family in Idaho on September 7, 1927. Farnsworth's device would compete with the concurrent work of Kalman Tihanyi and Vladimir Zworykin. Though the execution of the device was not yet what everyone hoped it could be, it earned Farnsworth a small production company. In 1934, he gave the first public demonstration of the television at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute and opened his own broadcasting station. Zworykin's camera, based on Tihanyi's Radioskop, which later would be known as the Iconoscope, had the backing of the influential Radio Corporation of America (RCA). In the United States, court action between Farnsworth and RCA would resolve in Farnsworth's favour. John Logie Baird switched from mechanical television and became a pioneer of colour television using cathode-ray tubes.
After mid-century the spread of coaxial cable and microwave radio relay allowed television networks to spread across even large countries.
Television is not solely a technology limited to its basic and practical application. It functions both as an appliance, and also as a means for social storytelling and message dissemination. It is a cultural tool that provides a communal experience of receiving information and experiencing fantasy. It acts as a “window to the world” by bridging audiences from all over through programming of stories, triumphs, and tragedies that are outside of personal experiences. (TVTechnology: The State of Television, Worldwide". Retrieved 22 March 2015.)

2.2.4 Video Telephony
The development of videotelephony involved the historical development of several technologies which enabled the use of live video in addition to voice telecommunications.

Fig 3: The 1969 AT&T Mod II Picturephone
The concept of videotelephony was first popularized in the late 1870s in both the United States and Europe, although the basic sciences to permit its very earliest trials would take nearly a half century to be discovered. This was first embodied in the device which came to be known as the video telephone, or videophone, and it evolved from intensive research and experimentation in several telecommunication fields, notably electrical telegraphy, telephony, radio, and television.
The development of the crucial video technology first started in the latter half of the 1920s in the United Kingdom and the United States, spurred notably by John Logie Baird and AT&T's Bell Labs. This occurred in part, at least by AT&T, to serve as an adjunct supplementing the use of the telephone. A number of organizations believed that videotelephony would be superior to plain voice communications. However video technology was to be deployed in analog television broadcasting long before it could become practical—or popular—for videophones.
Videotelephony developed in parallel with conventional voice telephone systems from the mid-to-late 20th century. Only in the late 20th century with the advent of powerful video codecs and high-speed broadband did it become a practical technology for regular use. (Reference this) With the rapid improvements and popularity of the Internet, it became widespread thru the use of videoconferencing and webcams, which frequently utilize Internet telephony, and in business, where telepresence technology has helped reduce the need to travel.

2.2.5 Satellite
The first U.S. satellite to relay communications was Project SCORE in 1958, which used a tape recorder to store and forward voice messages. It was used to send a Christmas greeting to the world from U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1960 NASA launched an Echo satellite; the 100-foot (30 m) aluminized PET film balloon served as a passive reflector for radio communications. (Reference this) Courier 1B, built by Philco, also launched in 1960, was the world's first active repeater satellite. Satellites these days are used for many applications such as uses in GPS, television, internet and telephone uses.

Telstar was the first active, direct relay commercial communications satellite. Belonging to AT&T as part of a multi-national agreement between AT&T, Bell Telephone Laboratories, NASA, the British General Post Office, and the French National PTT (Post Office) to develop satellite communications, it was launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral on July 10, 1962, the first privately sponsored space launch. Relay 1 was launched on December 13, 1962, and became the first satellite to broadcast across the Pacific on November 22, 1963. (Martin, Donald H. (2000). Communications Satellites (fourth edition.))
The first and historically most important application for communication satellites was in intercontinental long distance telephony. The fixed Public Switched Telephone Network relays telephone calls from land line telephones to an earth station, where they are then transmitted a receiving satellite dish via a geostationary satellite in Earth orbit. Improvements in submarine communications cables, through the use of fiber-optics, caused some decline in the use of satellites for fixed telephony in the late 20th century, but they still exclusively service remote islands such as Ascension Island, Saint Helena, Diego Garcia, and Easter Island, where no submarine cables are in service. There are also some continents and some regions of countries where landline telecommunications are rare to nonexistent, for example Antarctica, plus large regions of Australia, South America, Africa, Northern Canada, China, Russia and Greenland.
After commercial long distance telephone service was established via communication satellites, a host of other commercial telecommunications was also adapted to similar satellites starting in 1979, including mobile satellite phones, satellite radio, satellite television and satellite Internet access. The earliest adaption for most such services occurred in the 1990s as the pricing for commercial satellite transponder channels continued to drop significantly. Realization and demonstration, on October 29, 2001, of the first digital cinema transmission by satellite in Europe of a feature film by Bernard Pauchon and Philippe Binant

2.2.6 Computer Networks
A computer network or data network is a telecommunications network which allows computers to exchange data. In computer networks, networked computing devices exchange data with each other along network links (data connections). The connections between nodes are established using either cable media or wireless media. The best-known computer network is the Internet.
Network computer devices that originate, route and terminate the data are called network nodes. Nodes can include hosts such as personal computers, phones, servers as well as networking hardware. Two such devices can be said to be networked together when one device is able to exchange information with the other device, whether or not they have a direct connection to each other.
Computer networks differ in the transmission media used to carry their signals, the communications protocols to organize network traffic, the network's size, topology and organizational intent. In most cases, communications protocols are layered on (i.e. work using) other more specific or more general communications protocols, except for the physical layer that directly deals with the transmission media.
Computer networks support applications such as access to the World Wide Web, shared use of application and storage servers, printers, and fax machines, and use of email and instant messaging applications.
The chronology of significant computer-network developments includes: * In the late 1950s early networks of communicating computers included the military radar system Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE). * In 1959 Anatolii Ivanovich Kitov proposed to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union a detailed plan for the re-organization of the control of the Soviet armed forces and of the Soviet economy on the basis of a network of computing centres. * In 1960 the commercial airline reservation system semi-automatic business research environment (SABRE) went online with two connected mainframes. * In 1962 J.C.R. Licklider developed a working group he called the "Intergalactic Computer Network", a precursor to the ARPANET, at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). * In 1964 researchers at Dartmouth College developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System for distributed users of large computer systems. The same year, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a research group supported by General Electric and Bell Labs used a computer to route and manage telephone connections. * Throughout the 1960s, Leonard Kleinrock, Paul Baran, and Donald Davies independently developed network systems that used packets to transfer information between computers over a network. * In 1965, Thomas Marill and Lawrence G. Roberts created the first wide area network (WAN). This was an immediate precursor to the ARPANET, of which Roberts became program manager. * Also in 1965, Western Electric introduced the first widely used telephone switch that implemented true computer control. * In 1969 the University of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah became connected as the beginning of the ARPANET network using 50 kbit/s circuits.[3] * In 1972 commercial services using X.25 were deployed, and later used as an underlying infrastructure for expanding TCP/IP networks. * In 1973, Robert Metcalfe wrote a formal memo at Xerox PARC describing Ethernet, a networking system that was based on the Aloha network, developed in the 1960s by Norman Abramson and colleagues at the University of Hawaii. In July 1976, Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs published their paper "Ethernet: Distributed Packet Switching for Local Computer Networks" and collaborated on several patents received in 1977 and 1978. In 1979 Robert Metcalfe pursued making Ethernet an open standard. * In 1976 John Murphy of Data point Corporation created ARCNET, a token-passing network first used to share storage devices. * In 1995 the transmission speed capacity for Ethernet increased from 10 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s. By 1998, Ethernet supported transmission speeds of a Gigabit. The ability of Ethernet to scale easily (such as quickly adapting to support new fiber optic cable speeds) is a contributing factor to its continued use as of 2015[update].
Computer networking may be considered a branch of electrical engineering, telecommunications, computer science, information technology or computer engineering, since it relies upon the theoretical and practical application of the related disciplines.
A computer network facilitates interpersonal communications allowing people to communicate efficiently and easily via email, instant messaging, chat rooms, telephone, video telephone calls, and video conferencing. Providing access to information on shared storage devices is an important feature of many networks. A network allows sharing of files, data, and other types of information giving authorized users the ability to access information stored on other computers on the network. A network allows sharing of network and computing resources. Users may access and use resources provided by devices on the network, such as printing a document on a shared network printer. Distributed computing uses computing resources across a network to accomplish tasks. A computer network may be used by computer crackers to deploy computer viruses or computer worms on devices connected to the network, or to prevent these devices from accessing the network via a denial of service attack.
Computer communication links that do not support packets, such as traditional point-to-point telecommunication links, simply transmit data as a bit stream. However, most information in computer networks is carried in packets. A network packet is a formatted unit of data (a list of bits or bytes, usually a few tens of bytes to a few kilobytes long) carried by a packet-switched network.
In packet networks, the data is formatted into packets that are sent through the network to their destination. Once the packets arrive they are reassembled into their original message. With packets, the bandwidth of the transmission medium can be better shared among users than if the network were circuit switched. When one user is not sending packets, the link can be filled with packets from others users, and so the cost can be shared, with relatively little interference, provided the link isn't overused.
Packets consist of two kinds of data: control information and user data (also known as payload). The control information provides data the network needs to deliver the user data, for example: source and destination network addresses, error detection codes, and sequencing information. Typically, control information is found in packet headers and trailers, with payload data in between.
Often the route a packet needs to take through a network is not immediately available. In that case the packet is queued and waits until a link is free.
The physical layout of a network is usually less important than the topology that connects network nodes. Most diagrams that describe a physical network are therefore topological, rather than geographic. The symbols on these diagrams usually denote network links and network nodes.
The transmission media (often referred to in the literature as the physical media) used to link devices to form a computer network include electrical cable (Ethernet, Home PNA, power line communication, G.hn), optical fiber (fiber-optic communication), and radio waves (wireless networking). In the OSI model, these are defined at layers 1 and 2 — the physical layer and the data link layer.
A widely adopted family of transmission media used in local area network (LAN) technology is collectively known as Ethernet. The media and protocol standards that enable communication between networked devices over Ethernet are defined by IEEE 802.3. Ethernet transmits data over both copper and fiber cables. Wireless LAN standards (e.g. those defined by IEEE 802.11) use radio waves, or others use infrared signals as a transmission medium. Power line communication uses a building's power cabling to transmit data.

2.2.7 The Internet
The Internet started with the development of electronic computers in the 1950s. Initial concepts of packet networking originated in several computer science laboratories in the United States, Great Britain, and France. The US Department of Defense awarded contracts as early as the 1960s for packet network systems, including the development of the ARPANET (which would become the first network to use the Internet Protocol.) The first message was sent over the ARPANET from computer science Professor Leonard Kleinrock's laboratory at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to the second network node at Stanford Research Institute (SRI).
Packet switching networks such as ARPANET, NPL network , CYCLADES, Merit Network, Tymnet, and Telenet, were developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s using a variety of communications protocols. Donald Davies was the first to put theory into practice by designing a packet-switched network at the National Physics Laboratory in the UK, the first of its kind in the world and the cornerstone for UK research for almost two decades. Following, ARPANET further led to the development of protocols for internetworking, in which multiple separate networks could be joined into a network of networks.
Access to the ARPANET was expanded in 1981 when the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Computer Science Network (CSNET). In 1982, the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) was introduced as the standard networking protocol on the ARPANET. In the early 1980s the NSF funded the establishment for national supercomputing centers at several universities, and provided interconnectivity in 1986 with the NSFNET project, which also created network access to the supercomputer sites in the United States from research and education organizations. Commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) began to emerge in the late 1980s. The ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990. Private connections to the Internet by commercial entities became widespread quickly, and the NSFNET was decommissioned in 1995, removing the last restrictions on the use of the Internet to carry commercial traffic.
In the 1980s, the work of Tim Berners-Lee in the United Kingdom, on the World Wide Web, theorized the fact that protocols link hypertext documents into a working system, marking the beginning the modern Internet. Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a revolutionary impact on culture and commerce, including the rise of near-instant communication by electronic mail, instant messaging, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone calls, two-way interactive video calls, and the World Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social networking, and online shopping sites. The research and education community continues to develop and use advanced networks such as NSF's very high speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS), Internet2, and National LambdaRail. Increasing amounts of data are transmitted at higher and higher speeds over fiber optic networks operating at 1-Gbit/s, 10-Gbit/s, or more. The Internet's takeover of the global communication landscape was almost instant in historical terms: it only communicated 1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunications networks in the year 1993, already 51% by 2000, and more than 97% of the telecommunicated information by 2007. Today the Internet continues to grow, driven by ever greater amounts of online information, commerce, entertainment, and social networking.
The telegraph system is the first fully digital communication system. Thus the Internet has precursors, such as the telegraph system, that date back to the 19th century, more than a century before the digital Internet became widely used in the second half of the 1990s. The concept of data communication – transmitting data between two different places, connected via some kind of electromagnetic medium, such as radio or an electrical wire – predates the introduction of the first computers. Such communication systems were typically limited to point to point communication between two end devices. Telegraph systems and telex machines can be considered early precursors of this kind of communication.
Fundamental theoretical work in data transmission and information theory was developed by Claude Shannon, Harry Nyquist, and Ralph Hartley, during the early 20th century.
Early computers used the technology available at the time to allow communication between the central processing unit and remote terminals. As the technology evolved, new systems were devised to allow communication over longer distances (for terminals) or with higher speed (for interconnection of local devices) that were necessary for the mainframe computer model. Using these technologies made it possible to exchange data (such as files) between remote computers. However, the point to point communication model was limited, as it did not allow for direct communication between any two arbitrary systems; a physical link was necessary. The technology was also deemed as inherently unsafe for strategic and military use, because there were no alternative paths for the communication in case of an enemy attack.
With limited exceptions, the earliest computers were generally connected directly to the terminals used by individual users, typically in the same building or site (now known as local-area networks or "LAN"). Networking beyond this, now known as wide-area networks ("WAN"), emerged during the 1950s and became established (although greatly limited compared to modern networks) during the 1960s.
A pioneer in the call for a global network, J. C. R. Licklider, a Vice President at Bolt Beranek and Newman, Inc., proposed in his January 1960 paper, Man-Computer Symbiosis
A network of such [computers], connected to one another by wide-band communication lines which provided the functions of present-day libraries together with anticipated advances in information storage and retrieval and other symbiotic functions
In August 1962, Licklider and Welden Clark published the paper "On-Line Man-Computer Communication" which was one of the first descriptions of a networked future.
In October 1962, Licklider was hired by Jack Ruina as director of the newly established Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) within DARPA, with a mandate to interconnect the United States Department of Defense's main computers at Cheyenne Mountain, the Pentagon, and SAC HQ. There he formed an informal group within DARPA to further computer research. He began by writing memos describing a distributed network to the IPTO staff, which he called "Members and Affiliates of the Intergalactic Computer Network". As part of the information processing office's role, three network terminals had been installed: one for System Development Corporation in Santa Monica, one for Project Genie at the University of California, Berkeley and one for the Compatible Time-Sharing System project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Licklider's identified need for inter-networking would be made obvious by the apparent waste of resources this caused.
Although he left the IPTO in 1964, five years before the ARPANET went live, it was his vision of universal networking that provided the impetus that led his successors such as Lawrence Roberts and Robert Taylor to further the ARPANET development. Licklider later returned to lead the IPTO in 1973 for two years.
At the tip of the problem lay the issue of connecting separate physical networks to form one logical network. In the 1960s, Paul Baran of the RAND Corporation produced a study of survivable networks for the U.S. military in the event of nuclear war. Information transmitted across Baran's network would be divided into what he called "message-blocks". Independently, Donald Davies (National Physical Laboratory, UK), proposed and developed a similar network based on what he called packet-switching, the term that would ultimately be adopted. Leonard Kleinrock (MIT) developed a mathematical theory behind this technology. Packet-switching provides better bandwidth utilization and response times than the traditional circuit-switching technology used for telephony, particularly on resource-limited interconnection links.
Packet switching is a rapid store and forward networking design that divides messages up into arbitrary packets, with routing decisions made per-packet. Early networks used message switched systems that required rigid routing structures prone to single point of failure. This led Tommy Krash and Paul Baran's U.S. military-funded research to focus on using message-blocks to include network redundancy.]
Promoted to the head of the information processing office at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Robert Taylor intended to realize Licklider's ideas of an interconnected networking system. Bringing in Larry Roberts from MIT, he initiated a project to build such a network.
ARPANET development was centered around the Request for Comments (RFC) process, still used today for proposing and distributing Internet Protocols and Systems. RFC 1, entitled "Host Software", was written by Steve Crocker from the University of California, Los Angeles, and published on April 7, 1969. These early years were documented in the 1972 film Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing.
ARPANET became the technical core of what would become the Internet, and a primary tool in developing the technologies used. The early ARPANET used the Network Control Program (NCP, sometimes Network Control Protocol) rather than TCP/IP. On January 1, 1983, known as Flag Day, NCP on the ARPANET was replaced by the more flexible and powerful family of TCP/IP protocols, marking the start of the modern Internet.
With so many different network methods, something was needed to unify them. Robert E. Kahn of DARPA and ARPANET recruited Vinton Cerf of Stanford University to work with him on the problem. By 1973, they had worked out a fundamental reformulation, where the differences between network protocols were hidden by using a common internetwork protocol, and instead of the network being responsible for reliability, as in the ARPANET, the hosts became responsible.
With the role of the network reduced to the bare minimum, it became possible to join almost any networks together, no matter what their characteristics were, thereby solving Kahn's initial problem. DARPA agreed to fund development of prototype software, and after several years of work, the first demonstration of a gateway between the Packet Radio network in the SF Bay area and the ARPANET was conducted by the Stanford Research Institute. On November 22, 1977 a three network demonstration was conducted including the ARPANET, the SRI's Packet Radio Van on the Packet Radio Network and the Atlantic Packet Satellite network.
Stemming from the first specifications of TCP in 1974, TCP/IP emerged in mid-late 1978 in nearly its final form, as used for the first decades of the Internet, known as "IPv4". (IPv4 eventually became superseded by its successor, called "IPv6", but this was largely due to the sheer number of devices being connected post-2005, which overwhelmed the numbers that IPv4 had been able to accommodate worldwide. However due to IPv4's entrenched position by that time, the shift is still in its early stages as of 2015, and expected to take many years, decades, or perhaps longer, to complete).
The associated standards for IPv4 were published by 1981 as RFCs 791, 792 and 793, and adopted for use. DARPA sponsored or encouraged the development of TCP/IP implementations for many operating systems and then scheduled a migration of all hosts on all of its packet networks to TCP/IP. On January 1, 1983, known as flag day, TCP/IP protocols became the only approved protocol on the ARPANET, replacing the earlier NCP protocol.
The term "internet" was adopted in the first RFC published on the TCP protocol (RFC 675 Internet Transmission Control Program, December 1974) as an abbreviation of the term internetworking and the two terms were used interchangeably. In general, an internet was any network using TCP/IP. It was around the time when ARPANET was interlinked with NSFNET in the late 1980s, that the term was used as the name of the network, Internet, being the large and global TCP/IP network.
As interest in networking grew and new applications for it were developed, the Internet's technologies spread throughout the rest of the world. The network-agnostic approach in TCP/IP meant that it was easy to use any existing network infrastructure, such as the IPSS X.25 network, to carry Internet traffic. In 1984, University College London replaced its transatlantic satellite links with TCP/IP over IPSS.
Many sites unable to link directly to the Internet created simple gateways for the transfer of electronic mail, the most important application of the time. Sites with only intermittent connections used UUCP or FidoNet and relied on the gateways between these networks and the Internet. Some gateway services went beyond simple mail peering, such as allowing access to File Transfer Protocol (FTP) sites via UUCP or mail.
Finally, routing technologies were developed for the Internet to remove the remaining centralized routing aspects. The Exterior Gateway Protocol (EGP) was replaced by a new protocol, the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). This provided a meshed topology for the Internet and reduced the centric architecture which ARPANET had emphasized. In 1994, Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) was introduced to support better conservation of address space which allowed use of route aggregation to decrease the size of routing tables.
2.3 Electronic Communication Tools
Electronic communication has become more important to workplace collaboration in the early 21st century. Expansion of globalization and more spread out distribution of work team members have made e-communication useful in sharing information and other resources.
Electronic communication has changed the way businesses communicate with each other. It can be very beneficial if used effectively. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses will help businesses conduct effective electronic communication.
A result of the availability of electronic communication tools is the increased ability of organizations to develop diverse workplaces. Corporate organizations that can build diverse work teams take advantage of a broader range of ideas and better ability to serve global marketplaces with knowledgeable employees. E-communication tools also make it easier for corporate organizations to provide diversity training webinars, online forums and other workplace collaborations, some of the most common tools are listed below.
2.3.1 Mobile Devices
Although communication with mobile devices may be less formal than other forms of communication, people are increasingly turning to text messages and short emails using cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Text messaging in particular has strong appeal, as anyone with a cell phone has texting capability. PDAs with Internet capability have changed the way email works, often turning it into a means of keeping in touch via short, quick messages, much like a text message but with use of a different connection type. As a result, not only do business associates communicate with one another via mobile devices, but many organizations have begun marketing to customers through mass text messages.
2.3.2 Social Networking Media
The capability and uses of social networking media continue to evolve. Some maintain that social networking represents a new frontier in marketing and business networking. Companies promote events, communicate with customers, offer discounts and draw attention to sales using social networking media. Recruiters and salespeople often seek key contacts through social media sites.
For example, recruiters may search for a chief financial officer (CFO) candidate by sifting through and connecting with CFOs who are listed on business social networking sites. This gives them a new way to reach people without having to get past secretaries or working hard to get private home phone numbers.
2.3.3 Email
Electronic mail has become a staple of business communication because of its ease of access and reach. Plus, it's often the most efficient way of sending information to large groups at once. Email allows businesses to send proposals and products to clients and employees without incurring the cost of postage and paper. Moreover, email can be forwarded to multiple individuals efficiently and at no cost. Email is also an ideal platform for business communication as it unlimited and not restrained by time zones like telephone communication.
Because of its versatility, email can be used for asking questions and getting answers, holding mini-group conferences, making people aware of issues, passing along documents, sharing information and much more. Most courts now admit email as evidence and legal proof of contracts and transactions.
From a marketing standpoint, email has become a popular medium for sending messages to customers. For many companies, email blasts supplement and replace what used to be print direct mail. Now instead of getting a card in the mail about their favorite store's upcoming sale, customers receive graphically enhanced emails. Not only does this reach people directly, but email blasts help companies save on printing and mailing costs.

2.3.4 Video Conferencing
Video conferencing provides the same benefits as face-to-face communication and can be accomplished with an online service provider, such as Go To Meeting, through software, like iVisit and WebEx, or through televised cable or satellite mediums. Video conferencing allows businesses, clients, and employees to attend meetings without having to physically travel to a location, saving untold amounts of time and money. Video conferencing not only allows parties to see each other, but has the added benefit of allowing for the sharing of visual aids, such as charts and graphs. However, video conferencing has one major disadvantage; a lagging in signal carry time can cause feeds to stall, break up or freeze.
2.3.5 Voice Conferencing
Like video conferencing, voice conferencing saves time and money because there are no travel expenses involved. The drawback to voice conferencing is that graphs or charts cannot be shared through it, but it does have the advantage of being able to be used by a larger group of attendees; video conferencing is usually restricted to a few individuals. Voice conferencing also has the distinct advantage of allowing hosts to conference in additional parties and does not have a lag time like video conferencing.
2.3.6 Fax
Faxing provides businesses with the ability to pass hard copies of documents to an employee or client without the need to wait for delivery or incurring of mailing expenses. Faxing also gives users the capability to send multiple hard copies of a document to multiple recipients. Fax services often provide hard copy receipt confirmations upon delivery of the document to the recipient(s)
2.3.7 Group Chat Rooms
Chat rooms provide another tool for electronic communication. In this type of communication, a group of two or more individuals send instant messages back and forth. You send and receive the messages in real time. To make use of this electronic communication tool, you will need software such as Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Some Internet service providers also provide chat capabilities.
2.3.8 Mailing Lists
You can use mailing lists to communicate with a specific group of people. These are groups of people that share some kind of interest. For instance, Listserv is an email-based software that facilitates mailing lists that go out to a group of people that can be based anywhere in the world. The person who creates the list, known as its owner, can set it up as a private list so that only certain people can join the list and view the messages. If the list is public, anyone can join the group. The owner can also set up mailing privileges regarding which members can send email to the group.
2.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Communication
The following points highlight on the advantages of electronic communication: * Speedy transmission: It requires only few seconds to communicate through electronic media because it supports quick transmission. * Wide coverage: World has become a global village and communication around the globe requires a second only. * Low cost: Electronic communication saves time and money. For example Text sms is cheaper than traditional letter. * Exchange of feedback: Electronic communication allows instant exchange of feedback. So communication becomes perfect using electronic media. * Managing global operation: Due to advancement of electronic media, business managers can easily control operation across the globe. Video or teleconferencing e-mail and mobile communication are helping managers in this regard.

Electronic communication is not free from the below limitations: * Volume of data: The volume of telecommunication information is increasing in such a fast rate that business people are unable to absorb it within relevant time limit. * Cost of development: Electronic communication requires huge investment for infrastructural development. Frequent change in technology also demands for further investment. * Legal status: Data or information, if faxed, may be distorted and will cause zero value in the eye of law. * Undelivered data: Data may not be retrieved due to system error or fault with the technology. Hence required service will be delayed * Dependency: Technology is changing everyday and therefore poor countries face problem as they cannot afford new or advanced technology. Therefore poor countries need to be dependent towards developed countries for sharing global network. * Lack of Communication Support: In a face-to-face conversation, nonverbal communication such as tone of voice and body language, help to clarify the message you are sending. This lack of communication support can lead to messages becoming misinterpreted. * Email Privacy: An email is sent using data packets via computer networks. These data packets pass through routers and computers, before the email reaches its destination. Therefore, there is a chance of an individual tampering with the emails before the email reaches the recipients. * Security: The main issue with electronic communication is security. Your computer can be hacked, and affected with computer virus. This can have an adverse effect on the computer system, and the network. The volume of transmitted data is large with the transmission being fast. Hence, it becomes difficult for employers, and managers to absorb, process, and understand the same, and provide proper feedback to their employees. * Authenticity: While the data packets are transferred from one computer system to another, they can be lost when one router transfers it to another. If the router is bombarded with a large number of data packets than its carrying capacity, the receiver can experience a delay in receiving it. The 'from message header' of a message can be modified, hence, hampering the authenticity of the same.