The information superhighway, known as the Internet, provides a new way for accountants to access business information.

What Is the Internet?

The Internet is a computer network whose tentacles reach around the world. Exhibit 1 illustrates its enormous size.

Individuals who use the Internet (users) come from a broad spectrum of educational, governmental, not-for-profit, and commercial enterprises. These users can exchange e-mail, participate in nearly 3,000 special topic discussion groups, and access information databases and programs at various computer sites connected to the Internet (servers).

The Internet is made possible through the cooperative effort of its members. The Internet works effectively because each participating computer network connects to the Internet with common communication protocols, i.e., conventions for electronically transferring data and accessing information. These protocols provide the common denominator that gives users the means of accessing many remote and diverse locations. Accordingly, users see the Internet as one big computer.

Users connect to the Internet through one of two types of Internet providers. First, users may be members of an organization, such as a corporation or university, that has a telecommunications connection dedicated to the Internet. These organizations pay as much as $50,000 to $100,000 for up-front charges, hardware, software, and support personnel to manage their Internet connection. Monthly maintenance charges can run as high as $2,000 (Source: Computerworld, September 5, 1994). The second way is to subscribe to a commercial service such as America Online, CompuServe, Delphi, or Netcom, or Prodigy. Users of these services typically pay an initial connection charge, a small monthly maintenance fee ($10 -$30), and a charge based on usage.

EXHIBIT1

STATISTICSDESCRIBINGTHEINTERNET

Source:Computerworld,February21,1994

Connectedusers15million

Connectedcomputers2million

Rateofmonthlygrowth7%to10%

Connectednetworksworldwide21,000

TABULAR DATA FOR EXHIBIT 2 OMITTED

Protocols for Using the Internet

Users employ the Internet to communicate with individuals, or to access data and programs at other Internet servers. Exhibit 2 describes two communication protocols and four access protocols. Communication between users is accomplished directly through "e-mail" or indirectly through "usenet." Users access databases and servers through several different protocols. Four of the most common are Gopher, World Wide Web, Telnet, and FTP. Each server determines the protocol needed to access its site.

The software necessary to implement these protocols is distributed between the users' and Internet providers' computers. The actual implementation may vary slightly from the examples presented here.

E-mail. E-mail means electronic mail. Users type messages and send them directly to other individuals who have Internet connections. E-mail users have electronic mailboxes that receive and hold their messages until they are read. The users may then delete the messages or save them for future reference.

E-mail is "addressed" by specifying that a message should be sent to the user's identification code at a particular Internet site. This is possible because each Internet site is given a unique name. Likewise, each user of a site is assigned a unique identification code. The Internet's communication protocol is responsible for routing messages to the named site. For example, to send e-mail to the President of the U.S. a user will address the message to "presidentatwhitehouse.gov." "Whitehouse.gov" is the name of the Internet site, "president" is the user's identification code, and at" is the symbol used to connect these.

E-mail provides a useful link for communication within a company as well as between companies. This offers a low-cost alternative to telephone calls, facsimile, voice mail, or "snail mail" (Internet slang for regular postal delivery). Through the Internet, users can communicate with co-workers and clients, or even "reach out and touch someone" down the street or across an ocean.

E-mail can also be used to deliver complete computer files created with other types of software. Thus, rather than shipping a floppy disk containing a word processor document or a spreadsheet, the file can be uploaded to the Internet and e-mailed to the other user, thus providing almost immediate access.

Usenet. Usenet is the name of a global bulletin board through which Internet users discuss thousands of diverse topics. Each bulletin board, or "news group," is devoted to a specific subject. Users can select from nearly three thousand discussion groups with topics ranging from business to soap operas. Various servers collect the bulletin board messages and save them for a limited time. Users are able to read the articles posted to news groups, write their own articles, or respond to articles written by other users.

Gopher. Gopher is a menu-driven system for reaching Internet sites and retrieving information found at that site. These menus provide an orderly means of navigating through a myriad of Internet sites. The result of a Gopher search, for example, may be a document that can be read and saved, or a database that is searched according to user supplied key words.

World Wide Web. The "Web" is a hyper-linked system for displaying and organizing information on the Internet. It was developed at the European Center for Particle Physics. The Web is navigated or browsed using "browser" software programs such as Mosaic or Netscape Navigator. In January 1995, Prodigy introduced a World Wide Web browser to its menu of services. America Online and CompuServe have announced plans to follow. Microsoft announced access to the Internet and the Web will be part of its new Windows operating system.

Browsers of the Web see computer screens that look like a hyper-text document. These screens contain highlighted words and graphics. Each highlighted word or graph indicates that further information is available about that subject. The Web user who desires additional information selects the highlighted item and receives that information. For example, suppose "Debits on the left; credits on the right" is shown on a Web screen. By selecting either of the highlighted words, the user obtains further information about debits and credits. The user's software specifies how to select and branch to other information, e.g., the user may need to click a mouse on the highlighted word.

Telnet. Telnet permits users to access and log in to a remote Internet computer site and then run the site's computer software. For example, users who telnet to the Internet site named "locis.loc.gov" will access the Library of Congress Information System. Once connected, they are able to search for documents contained in the Library of Congress catalog.

FTP. File Trans-fer Protocol (FTP) enables Internet users to copy computer files from a remote server to the user's local computer. FTP is a useful tool since thousands of servers contain documents, publications, programs, graphics, and on-line books. For example, users desiring a detailed (90+ page) description of Internet resources and tools can use FTP to retrieve a document called "EARN.nettools.txt" from the server "ds.internic.net."

Gopher Provides Access to SEC Filings

Users can retrieve information about entities required to file electronically with the Securities and Exchange Commission through the EDGAR project. Users access this data by using Gopher to reach the Internet server "town.hall.org". Once at this site, Gopher presents the menu shown in Exhibit 3.

By selecting option 5 from Exhibit 3, the user goes to another menu which permits a search of the EDGAR archives. The user is prompted to enter a company's name. All 1994 filings open to the public bearing that name are available for viewing.

For example, Exhibit 4 shows the results of an EDGAR search for "AMOCO CORP." The user aligns the pointer on the left with the desired document. After hitting the enter key, the system displays the document on the computer screen and permits the user to save a copy for printing.

Using the Web to Obtain Tax Forms

Accountants are able to access "Taxing Times," a World Wide Web site, and retrieve copies of IRS tax forms, instructions, and publications. This is possible because Taxing Times distributes electronic versions of these documents that are compatible with many laser printers. (Current printing formats are Adobe PDF, TIFF, and PostScript). Exhibit 5 shows a portion of the message given to users accessing this site.

The number of products available is large! The current index for the PDF tax products is 66-pages long. The TIFF index is 5-pages long and the Postscript index is 9 pages. Location of the material is fairly simple since the each index is sorted by form or publication number.

Discussing Tax Issues on the Usenet

One usenet group of particular interest to accountants is "misc.taxes." Exhibit 6 shows how the articles posted to misc.taxes might appear. The number in the upper right comer of the screen tells the reader there are 19 unread articles in this news group, which is its average daily volume.

Other groups have more or less volume.

Exhibit 6 also shows the name of the person sending the message, the number of lines in the message, and a brief description of the topic. These topics came from actual postings to "misc.taxes." (The posters' names have been changed.) The topics available for discussion cover a wide range, e.g., preparation of tax returns (line a), proposed legislation (line h), or career planning (line 1). A '>' at the start of a topic line indicates a follow up to a previous message. Exhibit 6 shows that Gall received three replies to her post.

A user selects an article for reading by typing the letter on the left. In addition to "misc.taxes," accountants will find other usenet groups useful. Some groups relate to general business topics such as investments (e.g., "misc.investments"). Others relate to areas that overlap with accounting, such as consulting. For example, the group "comp.security.misc" discusses computer security issues. Accountants who install or maintain computer systems will find many relevant groups devoted to technical topics. To illustrate, the group "comp.os.ms- windows.nt.setup" is of interest to anyone working with MicroSoft's Windows NT. There are also usenet groups that discuss other systems such as VMS, OS2, DOS, and Windows.

Finally, a usenet group probably exists for almost any type of personal interest. For example, there are 32 groups devoted to "rec.sports" and 36 groups devoted to "rec.music." The Internet clearly has both professional and personal applications!

The Internet Provides New Opportunities

The Internet began 25 years ago. For much of its life, it was the informal talk line of academics and researchers. Today, it is quickly becoming an integral part of many companies' business operations. Corporate users range from the Fortune 100 to start-up businesses.

In the near future, special programs will not be needed for Internet connections; the necessary tools will be installed in commonplace products like word processors. Special software that automates the creation of Internet sites will be common. The amount of information passing over the Internet increases daily. The information super highway is beckoning many, including accountants, to climb on for a ride.

A good source of additional information about the Internet is an organization's information systems administrator. Exhibit 7 gives two helpful publications, as well as the phone numbers of commercial Internet providers mentioned in this article.

RELATED ARTICLE: EXHIBIT 7

ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INTERNET INFORMATION

PUBLICATIONS

Internet Bulletin for CPAs Published monthly. Kent Information Services 227 E. Main Kent OH 44240 (216) 673-1300

The Internet Complete Reference Harley Hahn and Rick Stout Osborne/McGraw-Hill ISDN 0-07-881980-6

COMMERCIAL PROVIDERS

America On-line (800) 827-6364 CompuServe (800) 848-8199 Delphi (800) 695-4005 Netcom (408) 554-8649 Prodigy (800) 776-3449

Simon Petravick, PhD, CPA, is an assistant professor and John Gillett, PhD, CPA, is an assistant professor of accounting at Bradley University. Nathan Griffin is an accounting major at Bradley University.