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Internet, Web Enjoy One Final Day As Proper Nouns (go.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Internet and Web will be downgraded to "internet" and "web" tomorrow with the new edition of the AP Stylebook. Therefore, today marks their last day as proper nouns. The AP Stylebook is a manual that many journalists follow, offering a comprehensive guide to the usage of words, style, spelling and punctuation. "The argument for lowercasing Internet is that is has become wholly generic, like electricity and the telephone. It never was trademarked and is not based on any proper noun," writes Tom Kent, AP Standards Editor. "The best reason for capitalizing it in the past may have been that the term was new. At one point, we understand, 'Phonograph' was capitalized." The two names will join the likes of website (formerly Web site) and email (formerly e-mail).
"The best reason for capitalizing it in the past may have been that the term was new."
Wonderful research this guy has done here, couldn't he even bother to read Wikipedia before opening his slap trap? Wikipedia would have told him clearly:
The words internetwork and internet is simply a contraction of the phrase interconnected network. However, when written with a capital "I," the Internet refers to the worldwide set of interconnected networks.
People who don't do basic research are the reason we get cynical demagogues for presidential candidates. There is no forgiveness for Tom Kent, may he burn in the deepest circle of hell with the morons.
Q: "Why are you in hell Tom?"
A: "I don't deserve it, I was the smartest man in the world, everything I knew about came from Facebook reposts."
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Nobody talks about any other internet when they say Internet. It's a proper place name just as much as Asia.
Wouldn't there have to be more than one Internet for there to be an internet? Is Internet 2 another internet, or is it a research WAN?
What do I call this network I am on now? I tend to call it the Internet.
I usually call the planet I'm standing on "Earth" and not "earth". Although I can use the word "earth" for just about any pile of dirt.
I certainly recommend calling the start that Earth revolves around the Sun and not a sun. A lowercase "sun" is a useful generic term for the many suns of the universe. Sol is another name we like to use for the Sun, but "Sol" not necessarily the preferred name in English.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
There is only one Internet. That's what the capital is for. It is a proper noun indicating the network of all globally routable addresses. If the people at the AP are so clueless as to not know that, no wonder the news is so bad.
I don't tend to use anything else.
Originally (with lower-case initial): a computer network comprising or connecting a number of smaller networks, such as two or more local area networks connected by a shared communications protocol; an internetwork; spec. such a network (called ARPANET) operated by the United States Department of Defence. In later use (usually the Internet): the global network comprising a loose confederation of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols...
This is far better researched than a style guide used by US journalists which seems to have made the change entirely for arbitrary reasons. It also makes sense to capitalize it since there is only one, well unless you get your language from George Bush but I'd hate to think they are using him as an inspiration.
Looks like the Microsoft devs have a lot of free time on their hands again.
Honestly, you guys have a lot of bugs you need to fix, stop trolling slashdot and get back to work.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Slashdot editors are all crackpots at heart, and crackpots like to Capitalize random Words because it Seems Biblical or Something.
This does not make sense to me. It's not just "a" Internet or "a" Web, they are "the" Internet and "the" Web. Unlike the Phonograph, there are not multiple vendors and multiple versions. It's all one very unique thing.
Bozos like this is why general press coverage of technical and scientific stories still sucks. Rather than ask someone who knows for their informed opinion, they think they already know everything so can make decisions without having to ask.
Lowercasing 'Internet' makes about as much sense as lowercasing Associated Press, because the AP used to be new, but now there are several other associations of press corps.
I was trying to think of an analogy to use to make the point to the idiots at AP and it occurs the me that the Internet is the most widely known specific internet in the same way the Moon is the most widely know specific moon. If you wanted to be pedantic you could refer to the Moon as the moon in orbit around the Earth (or should that be the earth now?). If you call the Internet just internet how do you specify which internet you want to refer too? What about Internet2, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., is that now internet2?
Apparently AP think it is the moon and some people are not happy about that, http://www.airspacemag.com/dai...
I prefer Infomercial Superhypeway.
Consider 'the world.' Or 'the sky.' There's only one of each (synecdoche and other planets notwithstanding) but we don't really regard them as proper nouns. In fact, you have to go back pretty far to find a language where one of these vast media are encoded in a way that's even ambiguously a true proper noun in what is still decidedly poetic writing. I confess I initially resisted the idea of this too, but... it's not really a bad thing, in the end. The dream of the ARPANET, NSFnet, and other early nets was always to create a network medium that was invisible and omnipresent. This is just another step on that journey.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
I used to go to a lot of webinars, but since the office started refusing my mileage reimbursements for them I had to stop going.
In order to be an acronym by definition, the shortened version has to be pronounced as a word itself, e.g. NATO === nay-toe. What you are proposing is that we treat GUI as an initialism, where each letter is pronounced separately, e.g. FBI === eff-bee-eye.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
How many of these words need capitals?
Internet,
Web
Enjoy
One
Final
Day
As
Proper
Nouns
...omphaloskepsis often...
The AP Stylebook is an American product, written by and for American journalists. Saying that the Internet should henceforth be 'internet' is a parochial decision without global authority.
In Britain the standard is set by the Oxford University Press, which has a rather longer and more illustrious history than the AP Stylebook. When the OUP and the Oxford English Dictionary declare that the word should not be capitalised, I shall accept their authority. Until then, it's the Internet for me.
A better example is the electric grid. Or the highway network.
Yes, it's true that for many years, there has been an common explanation for why "the Internet" should be capitalized, but I think what people here need to realize that one logical deduction does not make language. These things are much weirder.
I can see why you're annoyed. In Danish, the same decision was made years ago. I think for people don't give a damn about networks the capital "I" just looks plain weird.
More correctly internet (small 'i') has always referred to any network, such as your local LAN or maybe a multi-site network. Small 'i' internets are countless. The Internet (capital 'I') refers to all of the interconnected internets.
Even more correctly, an 'internet' is a set of connected networks, so a simple LAN is not an internet, but if 2 LANs are connected via a router (not a bridge) then they form an 'internet'.
The problem with your analogy is that it is possible to have an internet (one or more connected, yet autonomous, networks that are not connected to the Internet (a global connection of connected, yet automomous, networks taken as a unit). It's more like a clump of dirt is earth, but Earth is a planet.
I want all of the power and none of the responsibility.
Tom Kent falsely claims that, "The argument for lowercasing Internet is that is has become wholly generic, like electricity and the telephone." Here's a thought experiment: I'll create a few disconnected networks, interconnect them, but *not* to the Internet. By definition, any set of interconnected networks is an internet (but not *the* Internet). Then I'll sell a service that lets people access my internet... which lacks Google, Wikipedia, and many other things. I bet he'll suddenly find that "the Internet" is *NOT* generic - it is a *specific* set of interconnected networks, which has a proper name. Governments still routinely create interconnected networks that use TCP/IP, but do *NOT* connect to the Internet - especially when security is critical. AP may be unaware of this, but it's still true. Upper/lower casing in the end isn't THAT critical. The REAL problem is that too many reporters do not understand what they're reporting about, nor do they check their sources to find out. The difference between "Internet" and "internet" have been documented for decades. Failure to understand, and failure to check sources, is the REAL problem here.
- David A. Wheeler (see my Secure Programming HOWTO)
Internet is capitalized to distinguish between "internetwork" (interconnected-networks) and THE global internetwork using IP -- The Internet (caps).
Tom Kent's comments that "The BEST reason MAY HAVE BEEN" blah blah blah does a disservice to anyone who could either research this very simple thing, or ask someone who knows. It's not anything he says it is. Also there's no connection between a trademark (requiring an individual or company to register exclusive use in commerce) with the capitalization of a word!!! Truly this guy is a marvel in not knowing anything about words.
They can stop capitalizing it. The word internet and the word Internet will still be different, the former being any networks tied together, and the latter being The Internet.
E