There is a great article in this Sunday's Observer by John Naughton entitled 'The internet: Everything you ever need to know'. It gives 9 points of understanding that really get to the meat of understanding the Internet without getting overly technical. There is also a strong cultural/historic rooting to the piece that gives good context. I do recommend reading the whole article, but I also wish to comment on one point he makes about ecology:

A final comment on an interesting story on the growth rate of wikipedia caught my eye;

A thought-provoking article about possible jobs that might emerge in the future...

Jobs such as Cyber Security Specialist, Wind Turbine Technician and Medical Roboticist.  No Lightsable Swordsmith, as yet... however I'd add a 61st job title: