The amazing Internet

Most "normal" people I meet (ie those who don`t work in the Internet industry) seem to think of the Internet as a sometimes welcome, sometimes annoying, mostly useful addition to their daily activities. It`s clearly not a widely accepted environment yet - at least it`s not generally thought of as legitimate in the same way that, say, faxing and libraries are. If a fax doesn`t arrive properly, people get upset. If information can`t be found in a collection of books in a library, people are worried about the state of human knowledge.

Like the world as such, the Internet is an environment, a space where anything can, and does, happen.

But if a failure is related to the Internet, it`s apparently no big deal. E-mail, as a form of business communication, is somehow thought of as less meaningful than any other form. It`s telling that I`m reliably informed that faxes are beginning to see a level of acceptance in SA courtrooms as recognised documents, while e-mail hasn`t even been tested.

The Internet, as I`ve been saying lately, isn`t a medium nor is it a library. It`s an environment, in the true, value-free meaning of the word. An environment is a space or a set of spaces that can be inhabited by any type of communication, thought, value or medium. If this sounds vague and badly defined as a premise for a column, I agree - it`s the nature of environments that makes them hard to define in a particular way.

Just try this little test: describe your office environment. Fifteen minutes later, you return from diligently trying your hand at this seemingly impossible task. The types of things you jotted down will run something like this: physical surroundings, co-workers, coffee, human interaction and exchange, e-mail, faxes, papers to read, office parties, meetings and social engagements. In short, an environment is practically impossible to describe. But another thing will strike you - most of these things are relatively devoid of any strongly positive or negative meaning. They just are.

It`s the same with the Internet. Those who think about the Internet in terms of value judgements miss the whole point. The Internet isn`t a medium that brings on the uncontrolled perpetuation of pornography. It`s not a place where true knowledge can`t be found for free. It`s not an advertising medium, and it`s not a terrible place where hackers go after your credit card number or spammers haunt your mailbox relentlessly. Sure, it`s all of those things. But it`s also much more and much less.

Like the world as such, the Internet is an environment, a space where anything can, and does, happen.

Having given this long preamble, I think it`s important to note that much like the Net isn`t all about fraud, pornography, spammers and flame wars, it`s also not all about business. In a world of 1990s extremes, it`s only now becoming clear how the Internet evolved. Firstly, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Net was seen as a place inhabited by computer people, students and a few researchers, and not very interesting for the masses.

With the invention of the World Wide Web, and the concurrent increased availability of Windows-like graphical user interfaces, lots of commerce types suddenly jumped on the bandwagon, because here was an opportunity to create a cheap marketing and advertising medium. All that seemed necessary was a browser and a programming-literate Netizen who was prepared to be paid for "translating" information for the Net.

Coupled with the immense media exposure during 1994 and 1995, the Internet took off. It was hailed as the new advertising medium. Then came electronic commerce (still, in some ways, more empty phrase than concrete concept) and the Internet became thoroughly commercialised.

Yet - it`s not all about business. Even though there is practically no significant Web site without commercial advertising these days, I continue to think of the Net as an environment, a mirror of the world of sorts, in which anything can, and does, happen - whether it makes business sense or not.

During the next couple of weeks, I want to move away a little from writing about e-commerce or Internet industry issues. I think it`s time to look at some other aspects of the Net, such as music, literature, movies and digital art. All these things form an integral and important part of the Web, but us business types tend to overlook them in favour of the all-important question - how do you make money on the Internet?

In many cases, this should perhaps not be the most important question. While it`s understandable that companies spending money on Internet-related activities need to recover some of their costs, I want to spend just a little time on looking at other ways in which the Net is enriching us. If you think corporate Net users are wasting their time and your money by exploring non-business related sites, tune out this column for a couple of weeks.