We've Come A Long Way
	When Paul Kunz, a Stanford University physicist, wrote the first World Wide Web site ten years ago, there were no Flash animations, designer colors, sounds and certainly no advertising. In fact, it only had three lines of text and two links, one of which allowed access to a physics database and the other was his email address. The Web site, which first appeared on December 12, 1991, was the subject of a two-day symposium at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, where some of the people who created the World Wide Web gathered to talk about not-so-old times and what the future held for the greatest medium of communication ever invented. Kunz put his Web site together to share scientific information after visiting the CERN particle physics laboratory in Switzerland. While he was there, he met a man named Tim Berners-Lee, now acknowledged as the creator of the World Wide Web. Along with others at the laboratory, Berners-Lee had written the software and programmed the Web's first server. (Alternate names for the Web that Berners-Lee considered and rejected include 'Mine of Information', 'Information Mine' and 'Information Mesh'.) The World Wide Web really began to grow in 1993, with the release of the Mosaic Web browser and the creation of more than 200 Web servers. By 2001, hundred of millions of people around the world were visiting more than 30,000,000 Web sites.
	Remembering Bulletin Boards
	Before the Internet, there was the bulletin board system, or BBS. As soon as pioneer users of personal computers discovered they could 'network' their machines over the telephone, thousands of bulletin boards sprang up all over the world. They were set up on every kind of computer imaginable, and because their system operators, or 'sysops' typically financed the operation themselves, they could make up their own rules. On a typical BBS, people could play simple games, post their thoughts on any and all subjects, send messages back and forth and even use a slow, primitive form of email. Bulletin board systems served a variety of audiences, from the idealistic to the evil. Many computer users had their first experience of a computer virus by downloading an infected file from a BBS, while many others found valuable information and lasting friendships. For anyone who never used a BBS, and for those who remember them fondly, point your browser to www.iscabbs.com and click on the text line, or telnet to whip.isca.uiowa.edu. For people using Windows operating systems, HyperTerminal will open automatically on a world that quickly faded away when the combination of browsers, faster computers and the World Wide Web made the BBS obsolete. In the same way that the telegraph foreshadowed the telephone and photography led to motion pictures, BBS systems planted the seeds of the Internet in millions of minds around the world. Computer users learned that their desktop machines were much more than enhanced typewriters or calculators, but were instead an open window to a bigger world.
	Too Much Time On His Hands
	When Francesco Cossiga's computer froze during an upgrade installation of XP, Microsoft's latest desktop operating system, he took his problem straight to the top. In a letter to Bill Gates, founder and president of the software giant, he wrote, "Neither my friends nor the Italian subsidiary of Microsoft can solve the problem, with the risk that the computer's hard disk will have to be reformatted with the loss of all the data it contained." If that were to happen, he wrote, he would take legal action against Microsoft. On a more personal, if not paternal note, Cossiga advised Gates, "Perhaps, my dear, young Mr. Gates, before putting your new products on the market with so much publicity, you should have them tested for longer and with greater care." Fortunately for Mr. Cossiga, and his hard drive, he is not the average computer user. In fact, as a former President of Italy and a retired investigating magistrate with plenty of time on his hands, he is almost uniquely qualified to take on the Redmond-based software company both in a court of law and in the court of public opinion. Microsoft's legal and public relations departments probably went on full alert when Mr. Cossgia was quoted as saying he looked forward to facing Microsoft in a courtroom. "In the tribunal," Cossiga said, "we will be able to enjoy ourselves. I'm almost hoping they won't be able to fix it!" Needless to say, Mr. Cossiga's complaint did reach the desk of Bill Gates and after some high-level diplomacy; relations between Italy and Microsoft were repaired along with Mr. Cossiga's computer. The company insisted that the unspecified difficulties, which it eventually resolved, were due to an 'installation error'.
	This Song Isn't Over Yet
	The big record companies are going after free Internet music. First, they are cracking down on all the music sharing systems, like Napster. Unfortunately for the giants like Sony and Universal, shutting down the guerrilla interchange of music on the Internet is like trying to hold water - the bandits slip through your fingers. Aimster, KaZaa, Gnutella and others all offer Web-based interfaces to share not only music, but TV shows, movies and software as well. Critics, and particularly those people who do not wish to pay for their tunes, believe that the record companies are behaving hysterically in the face of Internet file-swapping. After all, they claim, the music industry overreacted, first to audiocassettes and then to CDs. Even with those technologies to reproduce music, record sales increased phenomenally, proving, they say, that most people are willing to pay for their music. (Some even claim that the majority of blank cassettes and CDs are sold so honest buyers can make copies of their purchases.) However, those critics are conveniently ignoring the Internet's new and unique ability to distribute music to hundreds of millions of people around the world, almost instantly, even before it reaches the record stores. The real point is that people may be willing to pay for their music, but true fans won't be able to wait for it. They will make illegal copies from the Internet and never pay anything. The major record labels also hope to beat the renegade distribution systems by offering 'pay for play' alternatives, but unfortunately, they may be too limited to suit most music lovers. First of all, the subscription online services will not necessarily feature all the record companies' song archives. Many songs will only be available for a month or so, and the user will not be able to keep the music on their computer or portable MP3 player. Finally, and this may scuttle the services for all practical purposes, most of the music will only be available in versions that cannot be transferred to tape or CD. Even if someone is willing to pay for online music, they may stick at just renting the music when they really want to own it. So stay tuned. This song isn't over yet.