(A COLLECTION OF QUOTES)
But let's talk about the future. Right now! One quarter of all (U.S. households are on the Internet - all that in about 5 years IT'S AMAZING! So the FUTURE is going to be HUGE! But if you're looking for common sense commentary on that future, beware of the mainstream media. They treat the web (which is quickly becoming tough competition for the money-hungry TV News, newspapers, etc.) as 1 of 2 things:
1.The Internet is a viper's nest of NAZI/CHILD MOLESTERS and must be regulated to the hilt or Pied Pipers and Internet Gypsies will steal your child away. (P.S. Have you ever noticed that everyone that opposes free speech always uses the same NAZI/CHILD MOLESTER argument as if everyone that championed free speech from our founding fathers on down somehow wants to promote Nazi/Child Molesters? How absurd!); or
2. Get on quick, rip off the rubes, and make tons of money. Musea happens to think that there's a wide gulf between 1 & 2 and that is what we'd like to consider in this article.
The following are excerpts/quotes from a special Forbes ASAP, December `97 magazine that spotlights a number of insiders views on the phenomenon known as the Internet.
Let's click on...
TIM BERNERS-LEE, inventor of the World Wide Web. "Many people ask why I didn't commercialize the Web. It's a strange question. By asking the question, people are suggesting
that they respect people as a function of their net worth. That's worrying. It's not an assumption I was brought up with, and it's disturbing the extent to which it pervades this country.
I developed the Web with 3 purposes in mind. The first was to give people up-to-date information at their fingertips by giving them the personal power to hypertext. The second goal was the realization of an information space that everyone could share and contribute their ideas and solutions to. Part three was the creation of agents to integrate the information that is out there with real life. Enormous amounts of information would no longer be lost."
JOHN MARKOFF, technology reporter, NYT: "This is probably one of those periods in time like Italy during the Renaissance, a critical juncture when things come together. Emerging technologies will influence all of humankind in a short period of time."
RAY OZZIE, creator of Lotus Notes, programmer. "I am really, really concerned that we are not preparing ourselves as a society for the fact that all of this communication is going to create political and social issues that have not been addressed. We talk but don't do anything about the fact that there will be more and more commercial and governmental exploitation of surveillance technologies and digital artifacts. I don't think we know the questions to ask."
GORE VIDAL, author: "Since the rich are ill-educated at best and the poor kept in perfect ignorance, I don't see what good all this knowledge will do either group. . .The United States is culture-resistant an opposed to gadget-friendly."
CRAIG DANULOFF, president and CEO, ICAT Electronic Commerce Co. : "I think people have no clue how deeply this is going to affect us. I know people in real estate who own malls. Ask them what would happen if 3% to 7% of their retail dollars disappeared and went to the web. Big things would happen. Rents would be renegotiated. The lower-class businesses would go out. Malls would close."
JOHN PERRY BARLOW, rancher, Grateful Dead lyricist, consultant: "My God, this whole thing is absolutely of a piece. It is instantaneous, simultaneous, ubiquitous, and growing like crazy. This is the nervous system of the planet.. .I think something truly profound is taking place here."
TED KOPPEL, anchorman: "I think that live TV has confused a lot of people into thinking that seeing an event is the equivalent of journalism. The real danger is that too few of my colleagues have done a good job of explaining or even understanding what real Journalism is about.. I have similar problems with the Internet. It is a medium that has brought to life the saying, 'Anybody can be a journalist.. and often is.' The bane and glory of the First Amendment is that everybody in the U.S. has the right to call themselves a reporter. Today anybody can sit at a keyboard and, with the Internet, have access to millions of people."
DAVID HAMILTON, high school freshman: "I was looking up a Web site that had a satellite picture of the world. My dad showed it to me. If I clicked "California" it would zoom in on California. If I entered my address, it would zoom in on my house. I could actually see the things in my backyard. I ran outside and started waving, but my dad told me it was just a stored image so I wouldn't show up."
So websters and non-websters, what do you think of all this? Let us hear from you.
AND before we go here's some assorted ODD ENDS on the net:
YAHOO the largest search engine now has a related newsstand magazine, Yahoo Internet Life plus (mimicking Corporate Art) it's getting into licensing of baseballs, clocks and even slinkys (no I couldn't make that up) from Advertising Age.
PRIVACY for adults is a big issue on the net but when it comes to kids there's no 2 ways about it. Musea says, NO COMPANY SHOULD COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM KIDS PERIOD! !!
That's scummy, immoral, and WRONG!
WE SALUTE MATT DRUDGE, the Internet reporter that broke the Monica story. He's giving the mainstream press a run for their money. I just hope be doesn't sell out too quickly.. .OOPS, too late, he's just signed a deal for a show on News Corp,/Fox/Murdock, (see Corp. Art 10) News Channel.
YOU'VE HEARD OF CAMERAS on the net spying into the personal lives of real life Trumanesque characters, right? Well here's one that's probably the dullest. Dallas Morning News reports that Dallas writer JERRY DAVIS has set up a video camera on his computer so people can watch as he works on his latest novel. Well I've got years to kill, how about you? (www.geocities,co;/soho/ 8540)
WWW = weally weally wacky!
SEE YA ON THE NET!
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