Remarks to the New England Society of Online Professionals

Boston, May 1995

Thank you. I'm delighted to be here.

We keep hearing about all the wonderful resources the Internet offers for research, education and simple enjoyment. The fact is, unless you are an experienced professional or have one handy, the Information Superhighway can be darned hard to get to and plenty frustrating once you're there. Trying to find what you want can be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack--after the hay has been through the cow.

It's getting easier, I'm pleased to say, but there are still plenty of ways to get hung up.

To begin with, if I were signing up today, I wouldn't even consider starting anywhere but the World Wide Web. Some of you may already be skilled at telnet, ftp and so on, and that's fine. There are lots of parts of the Internet and lots of different ways to get access to them, but the Web is where the action is.

I suggest using the Web because it has reached a sort of critical mass. There has been a widespread realization in recent months by people in all sorts of businesses, academic institutions and other endeavors that they need to establish a presence there, if only to keep from being left behind. It's a land rush with all the energy and excitement of the race to claim acreage in the Kansas and Nebraska territories. Everybody seems to want to plant a stake in the ground. The good news is that--unlike the territories--there doesn't appear to be a finite amount of space to be claimed. There's room for all. But it's easy to get lost in this fast-sprouting jungle.

What's on the Web? Everything imaginable. Lots of "home pages" of school children and technically adept egoists. The Encyclopedia Britannica, right-wing zealots, the Congressional Record and--soon--every manual for every product made by Digital Equipment Corporation.

The research tools are still pretty crude, but I predict that in a couple of years the Internet will be a routine source for everything from phone numbers to medical and scientific consultations.…

Six months ago, putting together a software package that would get you to the Web required some pretty sophisticated knowledge about digital communications. Without trying very hard you could screw up your computer but good and not get past the dial tone. That has changed dramatically….

Finding your way through the thicket of seemingly endless, frequently unpronounceable Web addresses--all of which begin with http://--can be frustrating enough, but the technical glitches that leave you waiting forever for a page that never arrives can be absolutely maddening.

After I had spent hours getting our home machine connected to the Internet, I proudly showed it off to my 15-year-old son, who watched a while as I struggled to get something--anything--on the screen. Then, with an all-too-familiar shrug, he stalked off toward the TV. "It'll be a great program, Dad," he said, "if they ever get it to work."