Hello and welcome to Wirehead.
OK, I know, what's the deal with 'Wirehead'?
A couple of years ago, someone asked me what my major was. "Computer science and engineering," I said. His witty response: "Eh, you're one of those Wireheads, huh?" For a second I had an urge to check my hair for foreign objects. Then I understood. Wirehead: (wire'hed) n. someone who works with wires or is crazy enough to try to understand how to put them together in way that makes something work. Possibly a subversive way to call me a nerd.
Yeah, I guess I'm a Wirehead. I took apart doorbells when I was kid (and rarely made them work again). People call me and ask for help with their computers. I arrange rooms for optimal space, not for looks. I refuse to listen to music that isn't on a CD.
So what does it means to be a Wirehead right now? It's more than being a nerd. If information is power, then the Wireheads are in control. They control the flow of information. Of recent, the Internet has become the ultimate tool for finding information. Wireheads control that too.
Uh oh, I've introduced yet another often mis-conceived buzzword, 'internet'. (I'll try to stop doing that.) What is the internet? One of my favorite metphors for it is 'the library of Congress with all the books on the floor.' Technically, it's all the computers in the world that are connected together and speak a common language. But when you get down to it, it's just a bunch of wires. A lot of wires. Red, blue, and green ones; steel, copper, and fiber-optic ones. The next time someone asks you what the internet is say "Eh, it's just a bunch of wires." It's like saying that a library is a place with more paper than anyone knows what to do with.
The year 1995 was the year in which the internet made it big. In everyday life, advertisements all over have funny little letters under them like "http://www.lemmings.com/". Unfortunately the mass media has decided that the word 'internet' is too geeky for the non-Wireheads out there and renamed it 'The information superhighway.' Not only is this a stupid name, it's a lie. The internet of today could be more accurately called 'the information sludgepipe.' You can't really send quality sound or video through it reliably and it often breaks. Don't get me wrong, the internet is still the coolest thing since cheese in a can, but a 'superhighway ' it is not.
Eventually, the wires will get bigger and faster. When you can watch 1000 cable TV channels, video-conference with a friend in Senegal like he was standing right next to you, receive voice/video/audio email, and find 10,000 recipes for Mesopotamian fruit salad all at once. That, my friends, will be the information superhighway.
The internet technology is significant because it combines a lot of wires; it brings the transfer of information into a single medium. For example, a typical house built today has wires for telephones and cable TV. The internet will eventually combine these together as well as carry radio and allow you access to the rest of the internet. All these different forms of media will be combined to utilize the best qualities of each media to communicate information a way that's easy to use. Someday.
So grab a strand and listen in to Wirehead. Just as a wire relays information, I'm here to relay information to you. I'll tell you about the internet, computers, the future, and maybe I'll even try to make it funny. That's why I'm a Wirehead. Then again, maybe it's because my head is a tangled mess. Either way, welcome to Wirehead.
Next week: Online publishing: can we get it right this time?