Under the heading life on line, there are different subgroups that you can clic onto such as community, friendships, relationships, great flowers.com, and dangers. On the right side of the screen there are links with summaries to various reports and publishings that people write and you can go visit and read them. Here is an example from the subgroup of friends: "Over a ten year period the average person comes into contact with thousands of other people. This is our personal community and the limiting factors in its size are geography, money and time. We simply live too far from and don't have enough money and time to contact any more people."
Under the heading of accepted behavior, there are various subgroups such as netiquette, internet relay chat, newbies, and even a cyber course to teach people how to use the internet chat rooms. On the right side of the screen there are also links to different summaries that people write about for you to read. Here is a summary of one of the pages listed: "What is Ircnewbies? IRCnewbies was created by SoNnY in November, 1995 on Undernet as a channel to help all those new lost souls entering the realm of CHAT. It was started with a simplepremise of providing as much accurate information on IRC as was available in a family environment." This page gives you a summary and a link to the address and you have to subscribe to their information through your e-mail list.
Under the heading of controversies, there are the different subgroups listed: addiction, censorship, abusing USEnet, news and chat. In the right side of the page it gives you a list of addresses that you can go to and find out more information. Here is an example of what you can find: "Dealing with Internet Addiction is no different than dealing with any other type of addiction. Whether you are addicted to heroin, gambling, cigarettes, sexual deviancy, or eating Milky Way bars, all addictions have certain basic elements in common." This report lists several characteristics that you may display when you are becoming addicted: denial, failing to ask for help, lack of enjoyment for anything else, internet interfering with your daily life, giving in to temptations, and behavior changes/failing to keep your word.
Under the heading of interesting netizens, there are the following subgroups: cyberpunks, hackers, neo-luddites, technonerds, and Webgrrls. On the right side of the screen there is a listing of various articles, but they do not tell you exactly what these people do. The only thing I could find that I could understand was a letter to a judge pleading guilty to a crime of computer hacking.
Under the heading of Virtual Meeting Places, there are the different subgroups listed: Xoom chat, cafes, pubs, 3D worlds, and cyberfest. On the right of the screen there was a list of different places you could go to meet people, have a cup of "cyber coffee" and talk story. Here is an example of an advertisement: "Pen Pals-Pen Friends and Links Visit a Neighbor "Only If." by Enya Welcome to the Coffee Shop. Here you can relax, meet new Friends, have a cup of Cybercoffee and visit with old acquaintences. You may see someone you know, or have a chance to begin a Lifelong Relationship."
Under the heading of Resources you can find an entire listing of the following: Newsstand, Bookstore, Egghead.com, Surplus Direct, and Suplus Auction. On the right side of the screen were summaries of different articles you can find. Some of these articles would be useful for class discussion in the future such as "Growing Up Digital, The Rise of the NET generation." The thing that threw me off on this summary of the article is that you have to purchase the book!
This page can be useful to many students in future generations because they can look up different topics for there reports and gain extra information besides from previous reports. This page really is a culture in itself because you can get in touch with other people in various parts of the world, read about news, find out about people, chat, shop, and basically learn and become a part of life on line.