We use the Internet to communicate and to access information, media and entertainment via the World Wide Web. The Internet is a network of computer systems, while the web is the way to access and explore all the information and images stored at web sites or on web pages. You have probably noticed that many web sites begin with “www”, like www.mmbc.bc.ca. The last few letters in a web address will give you some idea of where the web site is being provided – “.ca” means the site is from a Canadian provider.
There are many sites to go to and many paths to take to get to them. But just as the maritime explorers of the Pacific Northwest travelled in ships and used navigational equipment such as sextants, Internet users travel with a web browser and navigate with the use of software. Exploring the web takes some skill and practice to be able to find what you are looking for – it is very easy to become lost in a sea of web sites unless you can steer yourself back towards your charted course.
Some scholars of the Internet have tried to create maps to show how we navigate. We often start at one location and branch out towards more and more specific sites. We can chart this movement ourselves by creating a chain of web sites. This is the history of sites we have recently visited. You may have launched your expedition browsing the Virtual Museums of Canada network, and now you are reading about “Travelling the Web” on the Voyage Beyond the Map site!!
