Walking In The Web

Tim Houlihan

When people ask me if I surf the web, I reply, "No, I walk the Web."  Surfing seems, to me, to imply too much speed, everything concentrated on travelling, nothing on actually looking. (Been there, Done that. What's next?)  There is so much out there, that it seems a shame just to whiz past it, without finding out what it's all about.  The Web is probably the greatest store of knowledge that has ever existed on the planet and about 99% of it is free and available to all, which is exactly as it should be. The sad thing is, you are never going to be able to tap into all that's available, if your age span is only a century, or so. For you have to go slowly if you're going to find what you need. Needs differ for different people, of course. Some need cartoons, some need programming tutorials, some need games, some need books – and some may need them all. But there they all are, and all you are lacking is time.  Another thing about the web is that it encourages sociability. Lots and lots of the sites are Home pages in the truest sense of the word. Here I am, John Doe. I exist and I want every one to know it. I want to talk to other people. A site catches your eye in one of the directories – Stephen Someone's Home Page. You log into it and you are on their doorstep. Now you have a choice. You can step inside the door and look around and listen to them, or you can continue on your travels. Who could resist such an invitation? Stephen tells you about himself, his career, his wife and how he met her and married her. He introduces you to his children and shows you photographs of them, from babyhood, to toddler, to teenager, up to adulthood. You learn all about their personalities. You see holiday photographs, beautiful beach photographs, artistic desert photographs, Christmas photographs, party photographs. You are meeting people you could never have met in the ordinary world, even if you travel a lot. And all your conditioned ideas about other nationalities start to wither. People are more alike than different. People are, basically, nice. (A writer is not normally encouraged to use the word nice, but, in instances like this, it is the proper word to use. Pleasant suggests a surface veneer; nice goes right down to a person's core. You may be able to pass the time of day with a pleasant person, but a nice person is a person you really want to know.)  I have to mention books. If you read more than just the modern blockbusters, if you like to read past literature, great, good, middling and, in some cases, downright awful, there are sites that store hundreds of texts, and you can download any of them that you like, to store on your own hard drive, to build up your own electronic library. Of course, you can print them out, too, if you want to, but, for novels, you will need quires of paper, and where are you going to find room for even a few volumes printed on A4 sheets? All this is possible, because copyright doesn't last for ever, and these books are now out of copyright. Some paper-based publishers bring out editions of these books and do not have to pay royalties to an author or estate. A few publishers do the decent thing and sell them at a low price. Others rip you off outrageously. On the Web, they are totally free.  On the Web, you can read newspapers, tune into local radio stations, even watch television stations on the other side of the world. The ideal of a global community has never been so near.  But a word of caution. If a map could be created of the Web, like a chart of the Middle Ages, showing all the millions of Web Sites, some only imperfectly understood, printed across some sites, you might come upon the words, Here Be Spiders. Traveller beware! Copyright © 2001 Tim Houlihan