In 1995 I wrote an article for a computer rag, a newspaper format computer "magazine". These had sprung up all over the country. Back then in the back of them they would have a list of all the local BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) you could dial up with your phone and modem and visit, and what their orientation was..
I sent this article to several and The I/O Port out of Denver, Colorado bit, publishing my article in one of their 1995 issues. There was a lot of concern back then by companies and management about Internet use by employees. A lot of unreasonable fear and loathing, really. But I'll let the article speak for itself.
Here it is in all its glory. In hindsight, it now has a rather humorous historical significance for us to enjoy. It also gives us today, especially those of us too young to have been alive or active online back then, to catch a glimpse of what it was like in those early, perhaps or perhaps not...halcyon days through the birth pains of... The Internet.
Cyberspace
by [and under an alias to] JZ Murdock
jzmurdock@cyberspace.com
Contract
Technical Writer/Systems Consultant
WWW Home Page:
http//www.cyberspace.com:80/~jzmurdock/
Call it what you will: the
“Internet” (with parental thanks to Mil-Net
and universities around the world), the “I-Way”
(thanks, Time
magazine), the “Information
Superhighway”, “Information
Supermarket”; whatever you call it, “Cyberspace”
(thank you William Gibson) is still the only way to experience
the “Global Village”
(finally, thank you, Marshall McLuhan).
Al Gore may not be far off when he
claimed that the telecommunications industry will be the foremost
export and the world's No. 1 business by the year 2000.
Vice-President Gore's perception in Infrastructure for the Global
Village (Scientific American,
Sept. 1991), was:
"When millions of individuals
process information simultaneously, the aggregate result is
incredibly accurate and efficient decisions."
Imagine, the ability of millions of
users to connect to the same 'Inter'-net (work) at the same time and
actually work together. Need I say more? The Internet, Cyberspace, is
here to stay. So now that it is here, what do we do with it?
As a Systems Consultant, companies have
asked my opinion on giving their employees access to the Internet in
the workplace. It would seem that they have heard rumors of how this
access can be abused. They are therefore somewhat reticent to supply
this access. My advice? If it is valuable to the company, give it to
your employees. At least give it to the employees you know and trust
well enough, who are the self-starters, the dedicated individuals,
the trustworthy ones.
Still, if this does worry you, perhaps
you should also see to it that these employees have Internet access
from home. In my experience, it has been the individuals newest to
the Internet (particularly the World Wide Web, or WWW), who are the
most frequent abusers of corporate Cyberspace privileges. The
[cyberpace] old hands, chiefly the ones linked up from home,
tend to do any playing from there. Where it is after all much
safer and the freedom of action, more pervasive.
Since anyone can read in any variety of
traditional paper magazines, or the newer online electronic 'zines',
all the things possible in Cyberspace, allow me to just cruise
through exactly what it is that I do within it.
I work as a Contract Technical
Communicator (AKA, a Tech Writer) for Telecommunications companies,
as well as others. Essentially, a loaded pen (or keyboard), for hire.
I constantly make use of the Internet. Both the open global one, that
most people know of and hear about, and the closed,
internal/corporate ones. Most of these corporate internets
[lower case “i”], are maintained behind secure
'firewalls,' unavailable to the general public.
I use these networks both for
information and product gathering (graphic files, utilities, etc.),
and of course, sightseeing. Either way I am what you could call a
CyberSurfer, as I do “surf” the Internet [capital “I”].
Both of which are terms now familiar to the computing public.
This dual behavior of exploration and
research and product gathering are apparently a bane to corporations
as it simultaneously serves both corporation and employee.
That is, while one searches the Internet—on authorized Company
Time, one tends also to find things interesting on personal level.
Uh, oh: "Danger! Will Robinson!"
scream the corporate time watchers.
The personally interesting Internet
sites I find while at work are the sites that I simply make note of.
I save interesting web page locations (URLs) either to the Hotlist
in Mosaic, the Bookmark in Netscape, or I simply
jot it down, typically on (oh, no!) Post It notes for future
reference, though only for home.
After all, I AM being paid far too much
to be misusing company time. Besides, it's just not worth getting
caught when I can do far more and get far more in-depth into,
whatever I am currently pursuing, while relaxed at home.
Conversely and interestingly (and
ironically) enough, while searching Cyberpace on my personal time I
even more frequently run across various web sites, web pages, other
resources and individuals that could be in valuable for WHILE I AM AT
WORK!
The point there is that while one
cannot make use of one's time at work for personal use, one does end
up supplementing work with whatever is learned at home. A benefit I
might add, that is at no extra cost to my employers. I have spent
many hours at home, searching the Internet for work related
information, merely out of habit, before I even realized what I was
doing.
Needless to say, I don't bother trying
to extract pay for this from my employers. However, don't lose heart.
This habit CAN make your work (and you) look better in the end.
Whatever you learn on the Internet, whatever resources you do happen
to uncover, will inevitably turn out to be valuable to you at some
point in the future.
You may now very well be asking, "Okay
friend, what ARE some of these web sites, web pages, individuals and
other resources that could be so invaluable?" Okay, I'm game. So
here are a few of my favorites, both for work and play (and perhaps a
little in between). I'll let you make up your mind as to which would
be useful for which since, as I have already pointed out, the
definitive line between is light gray, if not invisible:
HTML Documentation -Table
of Contents
-. http://www.utirc.utoronto.ca/HTMLdocs/NewHTML/htmlindex html
[invaluable online help for writing web pages)
Digital Planet –
http://www.dlgiplanet.com:80/DP/ [a company hired by film companies
and others to display their products, great fun and some film clips
and contests]
Visioneering Research
Laboratory, Inc. http://www.vrl.com/ [check it out and you'll
see the light]
The Smithsonian Institution
HomePage – http://www.si.sgi,com/sglstart.htm [Everyone has to
have been here at least once. Much like the Louvre in Paris,
you at least have to be able to say you've been there]
The Emerald Web - http://
www.cyberspace.con/bobk/ [Interesting stuff in and around Seattle,
and interesting Internet stuff']
Charles Deemer's Home Page
- http:// www.teleport.com/-cdeemer/ [valuable writer's resource,
wherein you can find links to the Internet Directory of Published
Writers; the ScreenWriter's Resource Page and others]
The Equitation Station
http://www,cyberspace.com-jzmurdock/cairn.htm [Horse related links,
esp. for those interested in Arabian Show horses, as well as
any kind of horsemanship]
The
Central Intelligence Agency http://www.odci.gov/ ['nuff
said, and some handy world facts]
And finally, AWHP, my
personal home page - http://www,cyberspace.com/
-jzmurdock/maingrph,html [With a rather eclectic collection of
information and links ranging from movie magic, to weird
relationships of writing such as fiction and hypertext novels, and
links to an engine that serves up creative ways of complaining about
someone].
All of this cruisin' and abusin' makes
my work and my writing better in two ways.
Primarily, the Internet gives me access
to a huge variety of discourse and to experts from whatever
field I may require information. Typically, this is by way of the
Usenet Newsgroups, or World Wide Web pages. One page can lead to
another and you may find your answers (and yourself) at times in the
of strangest of places.
There are many people who will be quite
happy to be your personal expert-on-line. This is especially
true on the newsgroups; web pages seem to be setup to some degree, to
save the individual time from scouring the Internet themselves. Lets
face it, it IS quite flattering to be someone's expert;
especially, when it is as anonymous and responsibility free as the
Internet can be. [both a good thing and as we eventually saw, a bad,
if not very bad thing]
But please, all you future
Cyber-Researchers, do consider validating any information you get off
the Internet from at least one or (even better) two other sources
just to be sure. This does not however make your initial expert
any less valuable. Sometimes your expert will steer you into
the right direction to begin with. And that in itself can be
invaluable.
As an example, I was in an artists'
newsgroup back in 1990. Someone asked a question about the
composition of a specific artist's oil paint. I believe it was umbra
tempura, and they mentioned a specific brand. The most interesting
response was from a gentleman working at NASA. He wrote in-depth
about its composition, down to the molecular level.
He also included a short discourse on
the history of tempuras, their usage by the masters and spoke of the
various ingredients used in these paints (as artists used to make
their own oil paints by hand). He went onto explain the progress of
tempura paints through history, including the typical usage of ground
eggshells. In closing, this expert
from NASA went on to refer to the practice by another master, of
grinding down precious gems (as was done in the varnishes of
Stradivarius).
The second thing the Internet allows me
to do, is to enrich my view on life. One can learn and experience
vast amounts of things (some you may want to know about, some maybe
you won't), by simply hopping around the Internet universe (and who
will be the first to suddenly realize that they have left the
Internet and are now on some alien [extraterrestrial's] web surfer's
home page?).
This hopping around was something I
used to do in the mid and late 1980's at the Internet's original text
based level. It is now something that I do using my preferred web
browser, which happens to be Netscape's 32 bit version
browser. Speaking of which, I am running a Pentium 60 machine with 16
megabytes of memory and a 32 bit OS,which is now my favored Microsoft
Windows95 (due out to the public this mid to late-August).
On this note, I would suggest as fast a
machine as possible, with as much memory as you can get and plenty of
available disk space for optimal performance.
So where does this all lead one? Well,
all of this eventually leads one to develop and maintain a web page
of one's own. After all, once others have shared of their knowledge,
isn't it only fair that in some small way, this effort is repaid?
Besides, part of Cyberspace and the whole Global Village concept is
sharing information, giving some of your time to others and thus
finding yourself truly 'Networking': functionally, literally, and
metaphorically.
Don't worry though. You simply begin
sharing your knowledge without even realizing it Mostly because it it
pleasurable. Besides, having a web page tends to keep you from
spending so much time 'surfing,' not to mention and most importantly,
because people will now begin coming to you.
Understand that this of course means
you must learn HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language), the embedded
formatting code that generates Web Pages, at least to some minor
degree. Or have a friend that does, anyway. Once again, don't worry.
Web page writing in HTML comes pretty easily. Just be prepared. Web
pages allow you to put on-line: your views, your hobbies and
interests, pictures of your favorite plant, plane or person, a
resume, even a philosophy.
Web pages allow you to meet others of
similar viewpoints, as well as the dissimilar ones. These
thorns-in-your-side types, actually help you to sharpen your original
views to crystal clarity. And all without leaving your own home web
page. It is a way to enrich your views, your beliefs, your
personality, and possibly your career—with little or no effort at
all. And finally, it can just be fun.
Cyberspace is not just a conglomeration
of points-in-space, rather it is the sum total of a vast melange of
the human experiences that are available on-line; willing and waiting
for anyone to experience. Something that is nearly a required
experience for the informed global citizen in today's electronic
world.
So, is the Internet something so new
and unique that it should be spoken of in hushed tones of awe? Is it
something we should be wary of, perhaps attempt to avoid, to protect
ourselves from, possibly at all costs? Is it as some claim, total
anarchy and therefore dangerous to our society? Is the Internet in
its infancy still and therefore something to be avoided until it has
“grown up'? Is it an infant holding an informational nuclear
weapon? Is there some kind, any kind of a plan, a rhyme, or a reason
to it? Can we trust it?
Sherman Woo, is a Researcher and
Lecturer at U S West Communication's Technologies Division and a main
inspiration of their own Global Village project. He is also a fellow
ex team member from a now disbanded, ten person team of the thirteen
state wide US West Technologies project I worked on. Recently, he
published an article in a telecommunications trade journal which I
was happy peripherally to assist him on.
Speaking in this article about the
Internet, the Information Superhighway, and the Global Village, Mr.
Woo said:
"Skeptics argue that there is no
evidence of public demand and that there are very few, if any,
information products to speak of, and that there isn't a real plan.
But did you really expect it to be different, here—on the
frontier?"
Well—
Fear it?
No.
Be amazed by it?
For now.
But avoid it?
Not on your life.
From Page 24 of Denver's The I/O Port - September 1995
