1997 and all that: December 29, 1997 issue of New Thinking

December 29, 1997 New Thinking:
1997 and all that

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December 29, 1997

1997 and all that

By Gerry McGovern

As we approach the end of another year, my impressions of the Internet are that the solid things have remained solid and the more snazzy stuff has remained elusive for most of us.

Email is still as powerful as it ever was because words still have enormous power; a power which many have in fact rediscovered through the Internet.

The ‘glitz’ or multimedia of sound, video and moving images have in my experience actually grown less in 1997. I call the above ‘glitz’ because for most the lack of bandwidth makes these media impractical and counter-productive. In fact, the Web became a simpler place in 1997. The good sites concentrated on being elegant, simple and logical. They delivered the information or the ability to purchase something.

In many ways, 1997 was a year when the Internet truly came of age. The big organizations really started paying attention and spending big. Some say that the Internet is great for the small player. Yes, if they have a very unique product or service to offer, and they are not afraid of change and are willing to embrace and champion the Internet. Otherwise, the Internet may prove to be a severe threat to them.

Big organizations are often compared to big dinosaurs. Big dinosaurs had tiny brains and just couldn’t adapt when the environment changed. The people who run big organizations tend not to have tiny brains.

Anyway, push technology got too pushy for its own good. Microsoft got hungrier until the US Government took a bite out of it. Java was on everybodys' lips, though I hardly found a single good application of it on the Web. Spam got on a lot of people’s nerves. Legislation didn’t really kick in in 1997 though expect that in 1998 we will see a lot more laws pertaining to the Internet.

The challenge I see facing the Internet in 1998 and beyond is that of organizing and ordering information. Search engines are fighting a losing battle. There are just too many new sites and too many new documents. In fact, it’s estimated that there were 100 million documents on the Web in 1997 and that by 2000 there will be 800 million.

Information needs to be organized and structured using agreed standards before it is put on the Internet. We need to interrogate it, ask it the right questions, store it under the right headings. Because if we don’ t do these things, then people won’t be able to search for and find that exact document they are looking for in an easy, quick manner.

The types of questions we need to ask information include: When was it created? Who is the copyright owner? What areas of knowledge does it refer to? What geographic area, if any, does it relate to? Etc.

We need a worldwide information standard or set of standards. Every time we enter a document into our website, we will ask it a set of questions. Then we will all be able to find what we’re looking for a lot easier.

We’ll all be able to save some time. Because time is a scarce resource; a resource under threat. But then, that’s the story of the digital age: so many things to play with and so little time to play.

Gerry McGovern

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The challenge I see facing the Internet in 1998 and beyond is that of organizing and ordering information.