Intraweb
Encyclopedia
An intraweb is a web comprising all HTTP nodes on an intranet
; synonyms are corporate web, internal web.
s are networks used internally in organizations to facilitate communication and access to corporate information. Internet protocol suite
and tools build intranet
s and especially the Web
application layer
to provide organisations with integrated and unified interfaces to corporate 'legacy' data and information systems.
Very often the term intranet refers only to the most visible service i.e. the internal website
s. In fact for a large portion, intranets are solely relying on World Wide Web
software. More than just a play on the word 'Internet
', the word intranet was formed from the prefix intra-, meaning "inside, within", plus net, an abbreviation of 'network'. Likewise, 'intraweb' is formed from the prefix intra- plus web and thus refers to web sites that are only accessible to people within a specific group, organization or community. Nowadays, most large companies have intrawebs as part of their internal information system.
s can offer similar services within an organisation to those provided by the Internet
outside it but: (1) they are not necessarily connected to the Internet
and (2) their services can tap into internal organisation resources.
With the advent of mobile computing
, the notion of internal versus external network is no longer physical; intranet
s and extranet
s often make use of Virtual private network
s (VPN). The main reason for the separation between intranets and the Internet
is to preserve the confidentiality and security of the corporate information system. These mini-Internets are owned and managed by companies and enable these corporations to share their resources with their employees without confidential information being made available on the public Internet
. Web sites running on an intranet
look and act just like any other Web sites, but the firewall
surrounding the intranet prevents any unauthorized access thus creating a private web.
In a B2B
context a company might grant limited access to its intranet
to other companies; this is known as an "extranet
". Intranet
s, extranet
s and Internet
are realms of security created for dedicated cooperation and ordered by openness. More generally, access restrictions are of three kinds: from the outside to the inside (through firewalls
and VPN), from the inside to the inside (user profiles and access levels), from the inside to the outside (e.g. web filtering).
In fact intrawebs are becoming a privileged means for knowledge management
to acquire, facilitate the access, share, and reuse knowledge in order to foster creation of new knowledge and organisational learning.
As they grow, many intrawebs need a search facility that allows users to find specific information more easily.
Finally, we mentioned that intrawebs were used to limit access to the web (e.g. web filtering) but inversely they can be used to facilitate it. The organization which sets up an intranet
is a community and may host many sub-communities of interest that can maintain collective directories, shared bookmark repositories, etc. Thus an intranet
is not necessarily only an internal portal to internal resources, it can also provide efficient and focused portals to the world "wide" web.
, internal company networks benefit from widely-used and supported techniques that are simple and inexpensive to build and maintain compared to proprietary solutions. The same concepts and technologies of the Internet
, such as clients and servers running on the Internet protocol
suite, build an intranet
. In addition to an economy of scale in terms of building, deployment and maintenance costs, one can also recognize an economy of scale in terms of cognitive workload: reusing the same technologies and tools as the World Wide Web
to build an organization-wide web of internal documents makes it familiar and easier both for developers and users. The same server technologies distribute information, the same browser clients are used to access it, corporate information and application present the same uniform hypertext
interface.
have been adopted and used in internal webs. Just like the web evolved from a text-based system to a web of multimedia and online services, intrawebs now include multimedia resources and, for instance, corporate forms moved from online static copies to dynamic front-ends of web applications directly linked to the corporate information system. Even latest web tools meet application scenarios on corporate webs: wiki
s can be used to edit and maintain corporate documents and directories in a very simple way, blog
s can be used for news and technological watch, web service
s are being used to allow enterprise application integration and workflow management, semantic web
frameworks are used for information and data integration and exchanges for instance to materialize corporate memories as corporate semantic webs, etc.
Intrawebs are webs dedicated to the community of a corporation. Being on a private network of the company, intrawebs can include a whole family of applications that could not be made available on the public web for confidentiality reasons: corporate applications. The corporation is an existing community that needs to set up and maintain collaboration to attain professional objectives. Web technologies propose shared application supporting communities of practice, of interest, and more generally speaking, knowledge management
. They can support collaborations: synchronous communication, expert matching, internal FAQ, collaborative document edition, case-based memories, project management, workflows, etc. Within a company the existence of such community and of its shared professional interests makes the intraweb a selected place to develop and experiment new web-based solutions.
Historically there has always been a synergy between World Wide Web evolutions and intra-webs experiments. Many evolutions of the World Wide Web have been adopted and used in internal webs and, vice-versa, many local initiatives on intrawebs turned out to be seeds of new web applications.
.
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
; synonyms are corporate web, internal web.
Corporate internal web
IntranetIntranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
s are networks used internally in organizations to facilitate communication and access to corporate information. Internet protocol suite
Internet protocol suite
The Internet protocol suite is the set of communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks. It is commonly known as TCP/IP from its most important protocols: Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol , which were the first networking protocols defined in this...
and tools build intranet
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
s and especially the Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
application layer
Application layer
The Internet protocol suite and the Open Systems Interconnection model of computer networking each specify a group of protocols and methods identified by the name application layer....
to provide organisations with integrated and unified interfaces to corporate 'legacy' data and information systems.
Very often the term intranet refers only to the most visible service i.e. the internal website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s. In fact for a large portion, intranets are solely relying on World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
software. More than just a play on the word 'Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
', the word intranet was formed from the prefix intra-, meaning "inside, within", plus net, an abbreviation of 'network'. Likewise, 'intraweb' is formed from the prefix intra- plus web and thus refers to web sites that are only accessible to people within a specific group, organization or community. Nowadays, most large companies have intrawebs as part of their internal information system.
Security and privacy aspects
Being built on the same technology, intranetIntranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
s can offer similar services within an organisation to those provided by the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
outside it but: (1) they are not necessarily connected to the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and (2) their services can tap into internal organisation resources.
With the advent of mobile computing
Mobile computing
Mobile computing is a form of human–computer interaction by which a computer is expected to be transported during normal usage. Mobile computing has three aspects: mobile communication, mobile hardware, and mobile software...
, the notion of internal versus external network is no longer physical; intranet
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
s and extranet
Extranet
An extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific business or educational purposes. An extranet can be viewed as an extension of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company, usually partners, vendors, and suppliers...
s often make use of Virtual private network
Virtual private network
A virtual private network is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network....
s (VPN). The main reason for the separation between intranets and the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
is to preserve the confidentiality and security of the corporate information system. These mini-Internets are owned and managed by companies and enable these corporations to share their resources with their employees without confidential information being made available on the public Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. Web sites running on an intranet
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
look and act just like any other Web sites, but the firewall
Firewall (computing)
A firewall is a device or set of devices designed to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and is frequently used to protect networks from unauthorized access while permitting legitimate communications to pass....
surrounding the intranet prevents any unauthorized access thus creating a private web.
In a B2B
Business-to-business
Business-to-business describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer...
context a company might grant limited access to its intranet
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
to other companies; this is known as an "extranet
Extranet
An extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific business or educational purposes. An extranet can be viewed as an extension of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company, usually partners, vendors, and suppliers...
". Intranet
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
s, extranet
Extranet
An extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific business or educational purposes. An extranet can be viewed as an extension of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company, usually partners, vendors, and suppliers...
s and Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
are realms of security created for dedicated cooperation and ordered by openness. More generally, access restrictions are of three kinds: from the outside to the inside (through firewalls
Firewall (computing)
A firewall is a device or set of devices designed to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and is frequently used to protect networks from unauthorized access while permitting legitimate communications to pass....
and VPN), from the inside to the inside (user profiles and access levels), from the inside to the outside (e.g. web filtering).
Knowledge management and computer-supported cooperative work
Many companies maintain such mini private Webs that contain information only of use to their employees: organisational structure, corporate templates, Human resources forms, forms, directory, agendas, news, policies, rules, regulations, help files, project descriptions, expert annuary, partnerships with external companies, law information, etc. Intrawebs offer a safe place for employees to publish information that improves workflow but also online interfaces with corporate 'legacy' data, information systems and shared applications.In fact intrawebs are becoming a privileged means for knowledge management
Knowledge management
Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...
to acquire, facilitate the access, share, and reuse knowledge in order to foster creation of new knowledge and organisational learning.
As they grow, many intrawebs need a search facility that allows users to find specific information more easily.
Finally, we mentioned that intrawebs were used to limit access to the web (e.g. web filtering) but inversely they can be used to facilitate it. The organization which sets up an intranet
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
is a community and may host many sub-communities of interest that can maintain collective directories, shared bookmark repositories, etc. Thus an intranet
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
is not necessarily only an internal portal to internal resources, it can also provide efficient and focused portals to the world "wide" web.
Economies of scale both in financial and cognitive terms
Reliance on cheap or free software enabled Intranets to conquer corporate computing. Most internal networks use Internet protocols and therefore the same technology stack can be used above. Relying on technologies developed for the InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, internal company networks benefit from widely-used and supported techniques that are simple and inexpensive to build and maintain compared to proprietary solutions. The same concepts and technologies of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, such as clients and servers running on the Internet protocol
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
suite, build an intranet
Intranet
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
. In addition to an economy of scale in terms of building, deployment and maintenance costs, one can also recognize an economy of scale in terms of cognitive workload: reusing the same technologies and tools as the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
to build an organization-wide web of internal documents makes it familiar and easier both for developers and users. The same server technologies distribute information, the same browser clients are used to access it, corporate information and application present the same uniform hypertext
Hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
interface.
Web applications for the company and corporate applications on the web
Historically, many evolutions of the world wide webWorld Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
have been adopted and used in internal webs. Just like the web evolved from a text-based system to a web of multimedia and online services, intrawebs now include multimedia resources and, for instance, corporate forms moved from online static copies to dynamic front-ends of web applications directly linked to the corporate information system. Even latest web tools meet application scenarios on corporate webs: wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
s can be used to edit and maintain corporate documents and directories in a very simple way, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s can be used for news and technological watch, web service
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
s are being used to allow enterprise application integration and workflow management, semantic web
Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
frameworks are used for information and data integration and exchanges for instance to materialize corporate memories as corporate semantic webs, etc.
Intrawebs are webs dedicated to the community of a corporation. Being on a private network of the company, intrawebs can include a whole family of applications that could not be made available on the public web for confidentiality reasons: corporate applications. The corporation is an existing community that needs to set up and maintain collaboration to attain professional objectives. Web technologies propose shared application supporting communities of practice, of interest, and more generally speaking, knowledge management
Knowledge management
Knowledge management comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences...
. They can support collaborations: synchronous communication, expert matching, internal FAQ, collaborative document edition, case-based memories, project management, workflows, etc. Within a company the existence of such community and of its shared professional interests makes the intraweb a selected place to develop and experiment new web-based solutions.
Historically there has always been a synergy between World Wide Web evolutions and intra-webs experiments. Many evolutions of the World Wide Web have been adopted and used in internal webs and, vice-versa, many local initiatives on intrawebs turned out to be seeds of new web applications.
Other uses
This word has also been adapted into a slang term used by gamers and forum users. However, by their sense of the word it is used to mean the public World Wide WebWorld Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
.
See also
- intranetIntranetAn intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
- extranetExtranetAn extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific business or educational purposes. An extranet can be viewed as an extension of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company, usually partners, vendors, and suppliers...
- web portalWeb portalA web portal or links page is a web site that functions as a point of access to information in the World Wide Web. A portal presents information from diverse sources in a unified way....
- IntraWeb VCLIntraWeb VCLIntraWeb is a web application framework written in the programming language Delphi. It has been bundled with the Delphi IDE since Delphi 7....
: Web application framework.