What was it like when you first discovered the Internet? How old were you and where where you?
My first experience of the Internet was back in the 1980’s when our tech, who repaired our school library’s movie projectors, overhead projectors, and newer VCR’s and TV’s used his Apple Computer to communicate with some office in Springfield, Illinois. There were no pictures and only a blinking underline on his computer monitor, waiting for an answer to a question he asked from hundreds of miles away.
As we waited patiently for a response, we never dreamed of watching a complete movie with no pauses as it was streamed on a huge, flat panel TV in our living room. The modem he was using was as slow as a turtle and it had to be connected to a dedicated phone line meaning no one could be talking on the same phone line.
There had to be another person on the other end with a modem who was waiting to communicate at an agreed time. No email messages or YouTube videos stored and waiting for someone to see whenever they wanted.
That was a long time ago and we have come a long way since then. We can still chat with one another, send pictures of events, even write posts or make comments. Good or bad, more information is stored and flows between us, increasing in amount hourly.
What I hope to do is build online communities around interesting topics and concerns. To create interactive websites that amuse, inspire, and hopefully encourage communication and ideas.
As one person I hope to start the journey and explore wherever the ideas take us. But I won’t get very far by myself. I invite you to join one or more of our online communities. You have a lot to share and hopefully we will all value each other’s contributions.