Index of Articles in Volume 3:
13 - April 16, 1996 - Nobody Invented Cyberspace
14 - June, 1996 - the BIG War
15 - July, 1996 - The HOOK
16 - September, 1996 - 109 Seconds
17 - October, 1996 - Magical Mystery Tour
18 - November, 1996 - Investigating, Web Style
Other Volumes:
the Existenial Blues Archives - Volume 1
the Existenial Blues Archives - Volume 2
Volume 4 of the Archives (kinda scary, huh?)
Why? Because the development of the internet is a highly individual process. There
have been millions of individual contributions so far. And the internet is highly pliable. It can
be easily shaped and formed to the benefit of the individual user. It can give you what you want.
And, through the wisdom of its early developers, it can function equally well with a wide variety
of operating systems, all quietly downloaded into your individual computer.
The magic of all this is a unique "building block" approach that is only comparable to
the building of a civilization. I can build on the foundations provided by the myriad of internet
developers to provide a special, highly individualized contribution to the "internet society."
Now, whether or not my contribution is worthwhile is another matter entirely. A recent
estimate places the number of internet web page at over 20 million! Truly endless variety.
Contributions literally too numerous to mention.
The content of television is also varied. But it is not an individual effort. More
importantly , it is neither expansive nor interactive. Even with the 60 channels I can receive, it
is highly limited. Sixty channels times 48 available programming blocks (every half hour for
arguments sake) times 7 days a week times 52 weeks a year (assuming no reruns!!) And what do
you get? 1,048,320 choices. And you have to stay up 24 hours a day for three hundred sixty five
straight days to get those choices. Now if you can absorb two channels at once (one in the
picture in picture box), you can actually take advantage of 34,944 choices. In one year - twenty
four hours a day!
O.K. you know where this is going. You can access over twenty million web pages right
now. Nobody actually knows how many. I visited a site yesterday with 4,000 pages! You can
see them in any order you wish. You can spend as much or as little time as you wish viewing
them. And you have multimedia choices unavailable to television viewers.
Innovation is coming at a furious rate! Because the platform is so pliable, each user or
developer can shape it to his or her own needs, goals or desires. And innovation is not limited to
hardware or operating software, but includes content and ideas. Yahoo went public this week on
the U.S. stock market making instant millionaires of its college student developers . All Yahoo
does is provide a way to look up internet addresses.
The story is repeated over and over. The developer of Netscape makes the cover of Time
magazine. Kind of like Buffalo Bill's exploits being chronicled in the newspapers back east
during the exploration of the old west.
Nobody invented cyberspace. They discovered it. Nobody invented the old west either.
But they explored and developed and settled it. They tamed it and developed it resources. And
some pioneers made millions of dollars. And some sacrificed everything to make it the place it
is today. Welcome to the new frontier - you'll never have a chance like this again. Keep the
bottle in front of you.
Let's start in Communist mainland China, in say, June 1996. That's right - right now - cyberspace daylight savings time. The hottest trend in China is the internet. Even at a cost of over two months average salary just to get connected (if you already have or can obtain a computer), thousands are added to the net each month!! The government had to impose a moritorium recently in order to catch up with the demand. Cyber Cafes are springing up all over China. Since most citizens can't get a home computer, this allows the "masses" to get connected. I wonder if the government realizes this means everyone is getting uncensored news right from Yahoo, but I digress.
Now come with me to Stutgart, Germany, the home of World War II: The World Remembers. This massive work was created by the students and faculty of the Patch American High School and Patch Elementary School in Stuttgart. Like all of the other sites linked below, this ambitious site is comprised of hundreds of files: text, images, maps, audio recordings and videos. How much material is here? Well, the photo archives even include the famous "Kiss in Times Square" that marked the end of the war. Big as the site is, the internet is even bigger. And the war.... well, if you weren't there you probrably can't even understand.
But millions are trying to understand, or to help us to understand. Schools, magazines, individuals, governments, countries, religions, veteran's groups, ecologists, atomic bomb fanatics, white seperatists, neo-nazis, Jews, liberals, conservatives, and would-be Wizards are all contributing. An explosion of publishing like the world has never seen. Hundreds of thousands of pages. Tens of thousands of writers. What's even more amazing is the quality of material available.
Infoseek, the most restrictive search engine (and therefore often the best), finds over ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY sites with references to World War Two. Here are just a few:
Well, can the Chinese Government ever keep the news, views, politics, fads, fashions, trends or truth away from its citizens?
The Wizard honestly doesn't know. But I feel better with the freedom of the internet around. I suggest we fight hard to keep it free. Keep this bottle in front of you...
Even this article can be read by millions in China. For better or worse.....
By the way, the photograph of Princess Diana is from the July 7, 1996 On-line issue of PEOPLE Magazine which you can access through Time Warner's Pathfinder They devoted a terrific multimedia on-line photo-essay to the history of the bikini. They even included Real-Audio surf music. But will the issue be there when you access it? One problem with on-line publications: you can't go dig a past issue out of the recycle bin.
I'm certain the photo of Princess Diana, above on the left, is copyright by Time-Warner and is used here only in the context of a review. Now that big money is here, look for big copyright infringement lawsuits, too.
This wry observation on pop music today by Blues Traveler could easily be an editorial of the explosion of magazine publishing on the internet. A few of the more innovative on-line publications, like TV GUIDE ON-LINE improve so much on their sister print publications they stretch the web to new dimensions.
Others, like Microsoft's venture into e-zines, Slate, have high aspirations and an unlimited advertising budget, but are light years behind the leaders on the net. Still, when you can't turn around without hearing or reading about "Slate," you know millions more are being inticed into the on-line world. The cash registers are ringing Mr. Gates. And with Microsoft behind this publication and with first class editors and writers, maybe this magazine will find a real mission in life.
Want to see a well done little publication? Visit Living Digital, an unheralded, under recognized and under publicized pulication of Prodigy. Now that newly independent Prodigy is wacking itself into some kind of internet provider, this publication may grow in stature. or may get lost in the debris. But for now a very talented and very creative group of.... well, just what are web-zine folk? Writers? Publishers? Webmasters? At any rate, they're doing a great job and no one in the traditional media is falling all over themselves to compliment them.
Why are all of us, big and little doing this?
None of us know what were doing. And none of us know why were doing it. The most arrogant among us think we know, but.... well, just keep the bottle firmly planted in front of you. The Hook brings Us back.
Saturday night, September 7, 1996. The night of my 17 year old son's all night movie-marathon birthday party. Twelve teenage boys or more, probably some girls, too (at least my son hopes so). Seven large pizzas. Three dogs and a cat. A prospect that would strike terror into the heart of the strongest man. A woman of great wisdom, my wife, is out of town.
The strongest man.... the strongest man? Mike Tyson. That's it! I'll order the Tyson/Seldon fight! This will keep the kids in (relatively) one place for a long time. And they'll really get into the Christie Martin fight. Women dukin' it out. What could possibly be more liberated. Only $44.95. A bargain when you're entertaining twelve kids.
What's this? WWW.MTYSON.COM? Tyson has his own site? A promo for the fight? You can vote for the winner of every round? It's right there on the TV screen? WOW! Interactive Internet! A new "Edge of the Envelope." The Web is growing to new heights (depths?)
I sign on, I click, I conquer! Well, maybe not. It is an impressive site. It's part of Showtime Network, who own the rights to this and dozens of Don King fights. Not bad.... but.... but... where are the updates on the fight? Who won the last preliminary bout.? I search. Lots of fluff about the weigh-in - YESTERDAY! Come on - who would spend this much time developing the site. This much money (you know Iron Mike didn't write the HTML). No live updates? Can't be. Check out the voting - that's it. I click. Voting not working til next fight begins? What is this? These guys are really missing the boat. What - they can't afford one college student to type in some beat sportswriter's copy? Finally, I find little section with the last fight result. No copy. No details. No even the results of the on-line voting - which was just flashed across the TV screen.
O.K. Rationalization kicks in. It's PAY-PER-VIEW dummy. They don't want anyone to get information without paying. Seems pretty stupid to me, from a promotional point of view, but hey, I only make a living in advertising and public relations, so what do I know.
Time to check out the other news service providers. Somebody's got to see the opportunity to GO LIVE and provide info to the on-line audience. The rights granted to SHOWTIME are very restrictive, but reporting hasn't been outlawed... yet. First stop, MSNBC. I know it's a waste of time. They're running a first class TV network (well, not really, but they did get the scoop on Pan Am 800). But their web site is literally old news. It's mildly amusing support sites or the television network. No fight updates here.
Now I get serious. On to USA Today. Sharp, fast coverage of lots of events. Good fast updates of college football - no depth, but at least you get the scores. No fight info here. A day old background piece. I'm nearly as full of background as I am of pizza.
ESPNET! Gotta have it. They even have a boxing page. Aha! Two in depth background stories about Tyson. I now know more about Mike Tyson than Robin Givins does. But still no reasonable fast updates. In fact - no updates at all. Trinidad? Nope. Martin? Nope. Nada. Zip.
How about Prodigy AP On-Line Prodigy members only can link here. Actually, this may be the best news source on-line. Faster than USA Today, but no pictures, weird organization of stories - right off the wire. But, no boxing.... yet (they did come through later in the evening). I could go on listing services, but the results were just the same. Nothing remotely resembling "live" coverage. And NO DEPTH. No color.
Now it's getting close to fight time. I decide to go to ESPN Boxing Chat. Sixty or so folks here. Someone may know who has a good "live" on-line service. Nope, no one does. Most folks are here because they don't have pay-per-view and can't find any source of information. A few juvenile minds, however, are here for cybersex. They don't know where all these other people came from. The chat is wild.
"Anybody here know who won the Tyson Fight?"
"When is it gonna start?"
"Do you wanna suck my........"
Well, you get the idea. But, I was the savior. I had cable TV. I had a house full of teenagers. I plopped down the $44.95. I began to give updates. One other guy (girl? - who knows, heck, its cyberspace) also has paid the price. He gives updates, too. Slowly the room starts to quiet down. My unknown partner and I work well together. He's posting while I'm typing. Soon we're the only ones posting. And ESPN reports the room is rapidly filling up. Our moment of glory only lasts through the announcements, the warm-up and 109 fateful seconds. But I was a hero to a few hundred people. My partner and I were the conduit to the action.
When netizens want to know something, they know to go on-line. They turn to the web. They surf and they find. Some entrepreneur is going to figure this out and start a real "live" on-line news service. And they'll make millions. And they'll fill a real void in the web. A prediction from the Wizard. Just keep the bottle in front of you.
The hardware has been the barrier to admittance to the funhouse up until now, but that barrier is rapidly falling. Pentiums are now under $1,000.00. Every home will have a computer. And access is already a commodity - the price drops daily. So what's the problem? It's not what's happened so far that's the problem. It's the next step that locks folks out.
And the villain is? Capitalism. Profit. Money. Moola. Dinero.
Opps. Think you've accidentally tripped into some alternative universe? Is this some Evil Twin Wizard out of Bill and Ted's Adventures dissing on capitalism. Can't be.
Of course not. Greed is good. But not everyone gets the premium channels on cable TV, do they? If fact twenty-five percent of America doesn't even have cable. But the Internet HAS BEEN a democracy. If you were in, you were in. But not today. Netscape Navigator is 49.95. Real Audio (see below) is $29.95. But that's O.K. With Pentiums only $995.00, we can afford a little software cost.
The guardian outside the Gates (no pun intended) of Heaven is the admission price to go onto sites.
A few college students were willing to work tirelessly to reinvent the universe. For free. But Dow Jones, Gannett, ABC, CBS, General Electric and their friends don't hire hundreds of these now college graduates (dropouts) for free. The creative genius is still there - they're just getting paid now. And when you put a critical mass of creative genius together, you get the explosion of innovation were seeing right now.
But not for free. Just keep the bottle in front of you. And clear up your Mastercard bills.
However, unlike a hurricane, the destruction came nearly a month after the storm, or in this case, story first arrived in print. The story told of gang distribution and sale of crack cocaine to the blacks and other minorities and the path of money from those drug sales to Central Intelligence Agency supported armies in Central America. It was written by investigative reporter Gary Webb and published by the San Jose Mercury News. The government, the CIA and a number of well-informed individuals and publications quickly denied and rebutted it. Other major press publications noted it, then it seemed as if it was forgotten.
A few years ago that would have been the case. But the San Jose Mercury News posted the story on the Internet. And they expanded it. And they thoroughly documented it. All in ways totally impossible in traditional print medium. Audio tapes. Photographs. Complete government documents. Transcripts. The files and facts grew. Cross referenced. Linked. Interactive. Fully annotated. And, most importantly, the San Jose Mercury New left it on the Web.
People came and read it. A trickle at first. But they wrote their friends. They copied and pasted it into e-mail (the incredible power of control-C). And finally it got into the hands of a traditionally non-internet savvy crowd - the minorities who were the object of the alleged drug distribution conspiracy. It was only then, some thirty days after the print publication of the original expose that the full force of the hurricane hit. And it is still taking a toll, leaving more and more rubble in its wake.
While the WIZARD wants to give the San Jose Mercury News and Gary Webb very high marks for putting together a brilliant web site, it is not our purpose to agree with or defend the story. But, instead to point out the real significance of this story - it only happened because of the Internet. The Internet, unlike yesterday's newspaper, always stays fresh. It's always available. No scrambling through the garbage or the bottom of the birdcage. The web is updatable. Gary and the San Jose Mercury News are still adding to the story, updating the story. It's as fresh as today's headlines, yet easily back "scannable."
One "Netizen" is especially notable in her pursuit and dedication to investigative reporting combined with the power of the Internet, Janine Roberts. Her on-line magazine, The Web Inquirer is, in spite of a poorly chosen name, a first rate publication, well written, edited and documented. Jan brings the power of Internet publishing to many international problems. In Jan's own words:
THANKS TO ALL Send me e-mail at: wizardfkap@prodigy.net Thanks, the WIZARD
OR Visit the ENTIRE WIZARD, fkap Universe by clicking on this counter
© 1996-1999 the WIZARD, fkapthe existential blues
April 16, 1996
Nobody invented cyberspace
the existential blues
June, 1996
The BIG War
As I told you, the internet gives voice to millions of people, millions of perspectives. Check out the more obscure sites below:
Now for the BIG question. If the internet existed in the 1930's, would World War Two have ever been fought? Could the horror of the Holocaust ever been hidden? Could Adolph Hitler have risen to power?
the existential blues
July, 1996The Hook
It doesn't matter what I say
So long as I sing it with inflection
That makes you feel that I'll convey
Some inner truth of vast reflection*
the WIZARD, fkap was way ahead of it's time in publishing an on-line magazine (actually we prefer the term "Journal"). Now big money has entered the publishing business in a big way. USA Today, Time Warner and others are doing a superb job and truly stretching the "Edge of the Envelope." But will anyone ever make money? How many publications can the internet support? These are rhetorical questions. The Wizard doesn't intend to answer them - they are not the point of this essay.
But I've said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don't matter who you are
If I'm doing my job then
it's your resolve that breaks*
Because the hook brings you back
I ain't telling you no lie
The hook brings you back
On that you can rely*
Words and Music by J. Popper
copyright 1994 Blues Traveler Publishing Corporation
the existential blues
September, 1996
109 Seconds
the existential blues
October, 1996
Magical Mystery Tour
A prediction from the Wizard. The Magical Mystery Tour is about to begin! The Internet is finally about to pay off, big time. And this payoff will be for someone besides computer chip makers, software publishers and service and access providers. And when the payoff comes, watch out. For the masses with $19.95 admission tickets and not much more to spend, the world of limitless possibilities is about to get a lot smaller. And those with lots of cash will go on an adventure that makes all that came before it seem pale by comparison.
the existential blues
November, 1996
Investigating, Web Style
Dark Alliance, The story behind the Crack Explosion hit the press and public with the force and fury of a hurricane hitting a sleepy southern town. Savage winds, bellowing gusts and destruction and debris everywhere.
This is a labor of love (or perhaps an obsessive dedication to duty) for Jan. But her effort, and that of the San Jose Mercury News, is what is best about the Internet. And clearly the most important reason to keep this bottle in front of you..."This investigative magazine gives in-depth solid documentation to cases of
governmental or scientific carelessness and to cases of abuse of power -
and to proposed remedies. As a practical magazine aimed at encouraging
responsible government and good science, it also covers campaigns to
rectify these abuses."
LINK TO:
The Existential Blues Archives, VOLUME 1
The Existential Blues Archives, VOLUME 2
The Existential Blues Archives, VOLUME 4
OF YOU
for visiting!
GO HOME TO the WIZARD, fkap