The Internet, which is also commonly refered to as "CyberSpace", is real enough.
Real enough that numerous
maps
have been made of this land of data and transmission. And real enough that back in the fall of 1995, I, Rabble Leader, the
eternal optimist,
in act of self-centered american expansionism,
decided to colonize it.
Small chunks ( In the 10 to 50 MB range ) of this 'new' cyberspace were pretty cheap back then. Still are actually. Is
free cheap enough?
I picked up a 10 megabytes in the Geocities Heartland
for nothing and proceded to build me a webpage. I was thinking like ... how hard could it be actually?
Cyberspace has always possessed attributes
of community and
like minded individuals have tended to band together in interwoven networks
for the purpose of communicating and sharing their
- thoughts and ideas
- goals and aspirations
- fears and hopes
- and yes ... occasionaly ... even mp3s, movies and software
Community,
the ability of individuals
to communicate and to share, is what is and was most hopeful about this internet.
Sadly, I see this freedom
is at risk going into the future.
I first entered cyberspace in the spring of 1995. Cyberspace was wildish
and wooly, largely unpopulated and, as far as one could tell, mainly unregulated.
A frontier of sorts.
The massive explosion of web pages
and web sites dedicated to rampant commercialism had not yet arrived.
Search engine results had not yet rigged by pay for placement/listing schemes
and circle jerkers had yet to perfect their deplorable practice of hood-winking users
into ever tighter and more closely inter-linked networks of partnering web sites.
Newbies weren't thrust primarily into the digital marketplaces then.
( Commerce didn't really flourish until just before the year 2K ).
Animated gifs were all the rage.
Midis still passed for music.
We found our way instead to the personal home pages or educational
web sites of original pioneers of cyberspace and they were able and willing
to explain and to teach their shared common vision of crafting a new place.
A cyberspace - an almost utopian environment - werein usual limitations and
restrictions of reality - social class and gender, age,
ethnicity, orientation, persuasion and global location - would
either cease to matter or be greatly alleviated.
(to be continued)