Cyberspace - Revisiting One of My 1995 Computer Magazine Articles

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:

1. HTML Documentation -Table of Contents -. http://www.utirc.utoronto.ca/HTMLdocs/NewHTML/htmlindex html [invaluable online help for writing web pages)
2. 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]
3. Visioneering Research Laboratory, Inc. http://www.vrl.com/ [check it out and you'll see the light]
4. 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]
5. The Emerald Web - http:// www.cyberspace.con/bobk/ [Interesting stuff in and around Seattle, and interesting Internet stuff']
6. 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]

7. 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]
8. The Central Intelligence Agency http://www.odci.gov/ ['nuff said, and some handy world facts]
9. 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