For instance, many American universities are providing free open courses online with Coursera, Academic Earth or their own platforms.

FORBES: Unishared: Revolution in Online Education Beyond Coursera, Edx, and Udacity

And why on Earth would you build something that is not online?

FORBES: Launch Conference Indicates End to Tech Decade of Disruption

In 1985 Brilliant teamed with counterculture icon Stewart Brand to form the Well, or Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, a kind of online salon of artists and thinkers that is still in business.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Listen online or download the podcast at the Costing the Earth website.

BBC: RELATED BBC SITES

One of the welcome features of several recent space missions has been the decision to post pictures online almost as soon as they come down to Earth.

BBC: Mars rover: Wide and in the open

"This is going to be a major problem, " Professor Gordon Hamilton of the Department of Earth and Environmental Studies at the University of Maine told BBC News Online.

BBC: Internet to reach South Pole

Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.

ENGADGET: Amazon Prime Instant Video expands its library with even more video from PBS