ShipNET, ostensibly invented by Cap’n Redd in his spare time, is the ship-wide intranet. He then thoughtfully provided every room onboard with a PDA-style device so that his passengers could use it. You cannot research things on ShipNET; it’s a self-contained web forum. If you’re on livejournal, you’re probably relatively familiar with message boards and the like, and ShipNET functions similarly to one of those.