World Wide Web Puts Individuals on a Global Stage
Terra Goodnight, a student at UCLA, learned about the World Wide Web a year ago and decided she would add a bit of herself to it.
Now, people who have computers and modems can see that Goodnight is a basketball fan, likes to debate the strengths and foibles of Generation X and is charging through her first serious class in programming.
They get updates on her life by reading Goodnight’s “Web page,” a document she posted on the World Wide Web portion of the Internet, the global network of computer networks.
Superlatives are often abused in the hype-filled technology world, but the rapid development of the Web is nothing short of astonishing.
The Web is a simpler way to present and find ideas on the Internet using electronic documents called Web sites or home pages. It represents a major step in allowing individuals to express themselves on a global stage in a way that only big corporations spending millions of dollars could before.
“I can see it going a million different ways, mostly bringing people together from distant points,” Goodnight said. “Commercially, it will really change the ways businesses work.”
Journalists at Time Warner Inc. are using the Web to give readers more power over the stories and illustrations their magazines provide.
Computer Associates International Inc. has hired software programmers who applied for jobs through its Web site. Saturn Corp., BMG classical records, IBM and hundreds of other companies have Web sites that showcase products.
NASA created a Web site specifically for the March 2 shuttle trip and 150,000 people logged in for updates, video and audio clips during the 15-day mission.
A distinguishing feature called “hypertext” lets people jump around Web pages by clicking with a pointing device on highlighted words. For instance, in Time Warner’s Web site, a person reading a Time magazine article on O.J. Simpson may click on the words “Nicole Brown Simpson” and be switched to a People magazine feature about her.
“You turn this information into liquid you can surf through,” said James Kinsella, managing editor of PathFinder Inc., the Time Warner subsidiary that’s putting the company’s magazines, books and eventually video and movie clips onto the Web.
Like the broader Internet, the Web was originally created by scientists for scientists, but later attracted all kinds of computer users.
“It is great to see the creativity that people put into it,” said Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the Web in 1989 while working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory.
But, like the broader Internet, it has a way to go before reaching its full potential or satisfying the hopes of the first people to use it.
“You glimpse bright possibilities in the Web,” said Paul Gilster, author of several books about the Internet. “There are days when I’m astonished. There are other days when I think it doesn’t work very well.”
One reason is that demand is outpacing the capability of some computers that hold Web sites, resulting in slowness or sometimes failure to connect.
Linking up with the World Wide Web takes more work than just the Internet, which can be a daunting enough task.
A fast modem, at least 14,400 bits per second, and more main memory, 8 megabytes, are preferred for the computer itself. Then, a person has to sign up with an Internet access company that has the capability to provide special connections known as SLIP and PPP.
Finally, if the access company doesn’t provide it, a person has to buy software for navigating the Web. Such programs are known as browsers and are being reviewed more frequently in computer journals and newspapers. IBM included a Web browser in its latest version of the OS-2 operating software and Microsoft Corp. plans to do the same in its Windows 95.
The most famous browsing programs have grown from one called Mosaic. It was originally developed by students at the University of Illinois and is now available in several versions from firms such as Netscape Communications and Spyglass Inc.
Producing documents for the Web can be time-consuming but is becoming simpler. In just the past month, Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc.’s Word Perfect unit began providing free upgrades to their word processing programs that will automatically turn a document into one with hypertext for use on the Web.
Several hundred new Web sites are created each week, and some of the most popular report tens of thousands of “visits” by people logging into the Web.
Some businesses such as book and music sellers thought the Web would create electronic storefronts producing a rush of new revenue. But they generally have been disappointed. As with the rest of the Internet, there is little or no security for monetary transactions.
In a recent survey of 3,500 people who use the Web, a University of Michigan business professor found that people rarely purchase a product but value the detailed information available from companies.
“The disappointment is only with people who thought they could open up a shop and start selling today,” said Patrick Spain, chief executive officer of Reference Press Inc., a Texas-based publisher of business publications that placed its catalogue on the Web but takes orders by phone and mail.
At this point, a lot of the material on the Web, from poetry to recipes to a picture of a toilet, is silly. But while the Web is flowering, even mediocrity gets attention.
“There’s a lot of stuff out there that I wouldn’t bother to stop and look at if it was posted on someone’s dorm room, but I spend hours staring at it because it’s up on the Web,” said Randy Johnson, a research biologist at San Francisco State University.
The Web’s power comes from the idea that everyone can place words, photos, sound and video someplace where they reach a broad audience.
Prodigy Services Co. discovered that in January when it became the first commercial on-line service to offer browsing software and a direct connection to the Web. People have since reached the Web through Prodigy more than 400,000 times.
