THE MICROCOMPUTER REVOLUTION of the 1980s brought personal computers to desktops, kitchen tables, and classrooms. The clatter of typewriters was replaced by the click of computer keyboards. Computer terminals drove card catalogs out of libraries. Pinball parlors became video arcades. Encyclopedias that used to sell for $1,200 could be bought for $50 on compact disc. Students began to include color graphics in their reports. Many elementary and high school students started to program computers and use software, such as word processing programs and spreadsheets.

Although most people were not yet aware of it, another computer revolution began during that same decade. Computers were being hooked together into networks. Electronic mail (often called e-mail for short), bulletin boards, and on-line services such as America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe began to change the way people communicated with one another.

Meanwhile, a number of knowledgeable students and researchers at universities and corporations were...