Many-to-many
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Many-to-many is a term that describes the third major Internet computing paradigm. The initial Internet applications of e-mail and FTP are characterized as "one-to-one," because they are primarily communication means from one individual to another.
With the advent of the World Wide Web, one can display information on a Web site that is accessible by many others. Thus we have the second paradigm one-to-many.
With developments such as file sharing, blogs, Wiki, and tagging, a new set of Internet applications enable
- people to both contribute and receive information and,
- information elements can be interlinked across different Web sites. 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.
