Many-to-many is a term that describes a communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

 paradigm and an associated media form. It is the third of three major 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...

 computing paradigms. The early Internet applications of e-mail

E-mail

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...

, FTP

File Transfer Protocol

File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...

, and Telnet

TELNET

Telnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or local area networks to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communications facility using a virtual terminal connection...

 are characterized as "one-to-one

One-to-one (communication)

One-to-one in communication is the act of an individual communicating with another. In Internet terms, this can be done by e-mail but the most typical one-to-one communication in the Internet is instant messaging as it does not consider many-to-many communication such as a chat room as an...

" because they are primarily communication means from one individual (or computer) to another.

With the advent of the World Wide Web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

, one can display information on a website that is accessible by many others. Thus we have the second paradigm one-to-many

One-to-many

One-to-many may refer to:* Multivalued function, a one-to-many function in mathematics* Fat link, a one-to-many link in hypertext* Point-to-multipoint communication, communication which has a one-to-many relation-See also:*One-to-one...

.

With developments such as file sharing

File sharing

File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...

, blogs, 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...

, and tagging

Tag (metadata)

In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...

, a new set of Internet applications enable:

1. people to both contribute and receive information.
2. information elements can be interlinked across different websites. This kind of Internet application shows the beginning of the "many-to-many" paradigm.

With the evolution to the full "many-to-many" computing paradigm, people can input and receive information to and from the Internet; they will be able to connect and communicate dynamically within a flexibly formed scope; there will be no artificial boundary between information and communication tools, and the definition of "many" will go well beyond people to include entities such as organizations, products, processes, events, concepts and so on.

See also

• Chat room
  Chat room
  The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
  
  s
• Multicast
  Multicast
  In computer networking, multicast is the delivery of a message or information to a group of destination computers simultaneously in a single transmission from the source creating copies automatically in other network elements, such as routers, only when the topology of the network requires...
  
  
• Network effect
  Network effect
  In economics and business, a network effect is the effect that one user of a good or service has on the value of that product to other people. When network effect is present, the value of a product or service is dependent on the number of others using it.The classic example is the telephone...
  
  
• One-to-many
  One-to-many
  One-to-many may refer to:* Multivalued function, a one-to-many function in mathematics* Fat link, a one-to-many link in hypertext* Point-to-multipoint communication, communication which has a one-to-many relation-See also:*One-to-one...
  
  
• One-to-one (communication)
  One-to-one (communication)
  One-to-one in communication is the act of an individual communicating with another. In Internet terms, this can be done by e-mail but the most typical one-to-one communication in the Internet is instant messaging as it does not consider many-to-many communication such as a chat room as an...
  
  
• Peer-to-peer
  Peer-to-peer
  Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
  
  
• Web 2.0
  Web 2.0
  The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...