This may be the most strategic book you have ever purchased. Why? Because no matter what role you will eventually play in the information society, this book will provide you with a working knowledge of the Internet technologies employers are looking for across virtually all sectors of the knowledge economy. These skills are so vitally important in all kinds of business today that the National Science Foundation awarded a grant to the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET) for the purpose of creating nationally validated IT skills standards. This book teaches to the NWCET foundation standards. More information about NWCET is available at www.nwcet.org.

The title of this book, Internet Technologies at Work, has a double meaning. Through the book's hands-on, step-by-step tutorials, you will not only acquire conceptual knowledge about how the Internet works, but you will also get hands-on experiences in actually making it work. These experiences come from walkthroughs, labs, and problem-solving exercises that are situated in the workplace. As you work through the 13 chapters in this book, you will learn tools and techniques that you can immediately apply to solving problems at work.

Some of the students using this book are working toward obtaining one of the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) certifications. All students working toward earning their Webmaster certifications need to take the CIW foundations exam. Upon passing the foundations exam, students earn the designation of Certified International Webmaster Associate. The foundations exam has three modules that cover (1) Internet business foundations, (2) site development foundations, and (3) network technology foundations. This book has three parts that correspond to these three modules of the CIW foundations exam.

Each part of this book is divided into chapters designed to teach you the concepts and give you the hands-on experience that will enable you to pass the foundations exam. At the end of each chapter you will find practice exam questions and standards-based labs designed to help you master the certification objectives. Even if you are not seeking to earn a formal certification, completing these end-of-chapter materials will reinforce the concepts and provide you with a true working knowledge of Internet Technologies at Work. More information about CIW certification is online at www.ciwcertified.com.

This book is much more than a CIW cookbook, however. It goes beyond teaching just what you need to know to pass the exam. If your objective is to pass the CIW foundations exam, you should certainly read the chapters, study the end-of-chapter summaries, and practice the sample test questions. But the goal of this book is to take you further. This book has you do the Internet, not just study it.

In a speech that World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee delivered at the Royal Society in London on September 22, 2003, he complained that one of his greatest obstacles is that most people think the Web is finished. This book seeks to remove that obstacle by presenting the Internet from a dynamic perspective. Besides teaching you how the Internet works today, this book considers how the network is evolving and encourages you to reflect on how the emerging technologies will empower you to do more with the Internet in the future.

This educational philosophy makes this book appropriate for use as a college or university textbook that reflects as well as instructs. Besides teaching what students need to know to pass the CIW foundations exam, this book will encourage college students to reflect on why they are doing what they are doing, what they will be able to do better as the Internet continues to evolve, and what the Internet means in their lives and in their workplace and in society. I believe that every professional who works in the information economy needs to have this perspective if we are to keep the Internet open and evolving. By reflecting on what we are doing and considering how to do it better, we create the kind of mindset that enables new technologies to emerge.

—Fred T. Hofstetter