Cyberscene: Prodigy site produces home page in minutes

(c) 1995 Copyright the News & Observer Publishing Co.

(c) 1995 Cox News Service

Original version is accessiable from: http://www.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/info/071095/info653_21.html

By Kris Jensen (Jul 10, 1995 - 09:30 EDT) - I've got a confession.

For more than a year, I've written about cyberspace. Together, we've visited all kinds of sites on the Internet and its World Wide Web, but I never put my own home page on the Web.

That changed last week when I used Prodigy's new Personal Web Page to publish my thoughts on the Web for millions around the world to see (http://pages.prodigy.com/GA/cyberscene/cyberscene.html).

Prodigy's Web Page doesn't do much. It lacks the graphics and photos that come from more sophisticated use of Hypertext Markup Language.

But, on the other hand, I filled in the form for Windows users and made my mark on the Web in less than 10 minutes. Any Prodigy user can do the same thing. All you have to do is click on Prodigy's Web browser and follow the directions.

Soon America Online is expected to offer its own page maker.

The point is that the Web is becoming a new kind of mass medium that rapidly is becoming accessible to millions of people through on-line services.

"Unlike other forms of media, which are basically one-way communications channels into the home, the Web is two-way," says Colleen Kehoe, a Georgia Tech researcher. "The average Web user in the future will be a producer of information as well as a consumer."

Kehoe recently helped conduct Tech's third survey of Web usage. Among other things, the survey of 13,000 found that the influx of people from the large national services and local Internet service providers is changing the profile of age, gender, income, occupation and other demographics for Web users.

The survey found the Web isn't a guy thing anymore. While blacks are still under-represented, more women are on the Web.

"The respondents we are seeing now are less technically oriented and more likely to be female than those we have seen in the past," said James E. Pitkow of Tech.

Some people think the Internet is the third mass media to develop in this century.

The first two -- radio and television -- came with high hopes of bringing the world closer together through education and communication. Overall, hucksterism seems to have replaced the initial vision.

The Internet began a quarter of a century ago as an educational and research tool. Many still hope it can fulfill the vision once held for TV and radio.

Right now, the Internet appears to be at a crossroads as more people flock to it. Giant corporations are putting up Web sites that tend to be more commercial than informational.

The government -- fearing and not understanding the new medium -- is trying to limit speech, whether cybersex or encrypted communications.

In the 1940s, some visionaries bet correctly that television would catch on. But the technology is expensive, and information is controlled by those who can afford cameras and content.

A half-century later, anyone with a computer can gain access to the Internet and publish or say anything on it.

How will it end up in 50 years?

It could follow the road of TV and radio. Or it could contain entertainment, but still be a great unifying force.

Its future, literally, is in our hands.

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What's hot in the on-line world:

America Online celebrated its 3 millionth subscriber. President Steve Case, in his monthly letter, pointed out that by the end of this year 10 percent of U.S. households will subscribe to on-line services -- up from around 5 percent last year. In fact, only two years ago AOL had 300,000 subscribers.

Case also commented on the current battle in Congress over government censorship. He backed legislators who want parents to control their kids' exposure to cybersleaze by monitoring what they do or using new technological solutions to filter out seamy Internet sites.

"Given the interactive and participatory nature of this medium, and given the global reach of the Internet . . . we believe attempts to monitor and censor all of the data sent throughout the world is impractical," he wrote.

CompuServe has opened a new Trainers and Training Forum offering business trainers and executives the latest information on techniques and equipment (Go TRAINERS).

Prodigy is offering Internet Interest Groups linking the service to nearly 50 sites concerning topics like movies, chocolate, collecting, parenting and trading cards.

On the World Wide Web, women artists are contributing to World's Women On-Line (http://www.asu.edu/wwol/). The project is in conjunction with the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women Aug. 30-Sept. 15 in Beijing.

The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are in their first movie, and several sites have sprung up in cyberspace. One of the best (http://kilp.media.mit.edu:8001 /power/homepage.html) is by Manny Perez, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology junior majoring in computer science. It links to many other sites.