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The On-Line Handbook was the world’s first book to explore the commercial potential of the internet.

Published by Fontana in 1984, the book provided advice for all of those who wanted to go on-line to explore the potential of the early internet. It included internet addresses for the first major corporations who were beginning to exploit the power of public data networks.

Excerpts from The On-Line Handbook (1984):

"The linking of computers around the world is going to have far reaching effects, and the spread of knowledge, the interchange of ideas and the dissemination of information are going to produce a revolution in our society.

"The moment you go on-line you feel as though the revolution has sprung down the telephone line and invaded your own room.

"You will know what the wired world is like and you will begin to understand the implications! You become a pioneer of the information age, experiencing with awe the power of linked computers which the next generation will take for granted."

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"On-line advertising has one advantage over all other media: it is very selective.

"It is wasteful to advertise a new movie to people interested in motorcycles, because the advertiser can't be sure whether or not the searcher watches films.

"But if the ads are shown only to those enquiring about film reviews (and equally motorcycle ads go only to those searching motorcycle topics) then the advertising is targetted directly to the correct group.

"This is cost-effective and powerful and most commercial databases in the future will carry some level of advertising."

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"You may need information for any number of reasons: for fun, for an examination, for profit, for a book, for personal advantage or to give to someone else.

"Whatever the reason, once you've discovered on-line searching you'll realize that we've finally solved the problem that has been weighing us down for most of this century: how to access information.

"Now, information, so long static and locked up in old papers, books, magazines and broadcast tapes, can be sorted, ordered, filed and retrieved so as to produce the right information, at the right time, in an instant.

"Out of selective information comes knowledge and out of knowledge comes fulfilment and joy."

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"In the future an increasing number of publications will be available in both electronic and printed forms.

" The advantage the on-line version offers is that it can usually be accessed without taking a subscription to the publication, it can be accessed from the other side of the world, all back issues held on file can be searched for a particular topic instantly and the researcher doesn't have to leave the comfort of the home or office."

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"Many large corporations are realizing that there are ten million personal computer owners in the Western world and that they're all going to want to break out of their prisons of isolation and tap into the electronic matrix which girdles the planet."

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"The electronic web of computer bulletin boards spread around the globe can be seen as an early underground, a system of communication between the ordinary people which is already working faster and more effectively than organized forms of communication such as television."

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"If your doctor tells you that you have sarcoidosis, you can now return home and, if you're brave enough, tap Medline to find out what research has been done on the disease and who are the world's experts; in many cases, the abstracts of information contained in the file will give you an instant insight into your condition. On-line information is transferring power away from those who have guarded it so jealously in the past."