Test Case #1: You overhear the word "Web" or "Internet" in a nearby conversation. You look over cautiously. Maybe there's only two, maybe a half-dozen people. They're animated, talking with their hands, using more acronyms than the military, interrupting each other and oblivious to the world around them. They're on fire!
Test Case #2: This guy sees an article in a magazine in his doctor's office, about a new Web browser. He reads every word.
And Test Case #3: Somebody sees an ad in a magazine for bundled Internet access software, including e-mail, ftp, gopher, WAIS and telnet. He or she understands what all those are! They're on fire!
The talk turns to URL's, chatters, e-mail post cards, hot sites, cool sites, download sites, home pages, ISDN lines. If you can get involved in any or all of those topics...then you're on Fire!
What fires us up? The World-Wide Web, or just the "Web!" The Web is unlike any other social phenomenon we've ever seen. It's a whole new way of communicating! Think about that! A WHOLE NEW WAY of communicating! How long has it been since we've had a NEW way to communicate? Let's review!
Let's be realistic and start with the telephone. That's really the birth of real-time two-way communication. Without being too precise, let's say a hundred years ago. Since then, we've had short-wave and Citizen's Band. Remember now, we're talkin' real-time and two-way! OK, so there's some variations, fax, for example, but that uses phone lines. Cellular phones are still telephones, but they are different enough from a "based" telephone to pretty much count as a genuine innovation, not just a variation. And then there's the Internet and the Web!
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