Apology

Over a year ago I made a personal commitment to write at least one column for my web site every month. So much for commitments, huh?

In the hurly-burly world of trying to keep up with all my job entails and not taking time to write, I've failed in that task. I'll try to do better.

Just a Hobby

This web site is a hobby and it just continues expanding. It started out as a little one page black, white and gray site of my favorite places on the net and has expanded to include separate sections on various categories.

I still believe that the Internet and the World Wide Web in particular are making this world a more democratic place. Anyone with a computer hooked up to the Net can put up a site. Geocities is one of the many places that will let anyone post pages on their server. The drawback to this is that advertisements accompany your work, and now there are little logos, similar to the ones at the bottom of your TV screen, that follow the writing on the pages. I guess this is a small price to pay for letting anyone put their thoughts up for free.

Intro to a Letter

I have been using my Internet service provider (ISP) to post these pages. I don't have any ads, but do have to pay the fee for the use of this service. This brings me to the point of this "Views". I was most concerned recently with a situation that shows how, if left to random computer generated parameters, strange and troubling connections can take place. I wrote a letter to Time magazine (actually an e-mail) about an incident I witnessed. Here is what I said:

Letter to the Editor

To: Time Magazine

Subject: CyberShopping

The cover story in your July 20th issue hit a responsive chord with this

educator of twenty years.

You focused on the growth of CyberShopping, and the company Yahoo! as an

example of the growth and future in this emerging major industry.

The same day I received my issue in the mail I was doing research for a

project to create interactive lessons utilizing the power of the Internet.

With a literature focus I'm writing about the first popular Mark Twain story,

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County". The protagonist of the

piece is a character named Jim Smiley who is willing to bet on virtually

anything. In researching gambling for addictive personalities I discovered a

site that offers assistance to people with this personality disorder.

The site, put up by Yahoo!, has several good sources, including Gambler's

Anonymous, to assist those needing help with this unfortunate trait.

The ironic thing about the page, however, is that it also has a "banner ad" that points to an online gambling site.

I checked the site the next day and the banner had changed to an "Online Casino School".

While I'm a great advocate in using technology appropriately, selling space on

web pages can lead to some unfortunate pairing.

I'm sure that David Filo and your coverperson Jerry Yang didn't have this in

mind when creating their enterprise, but wouldn't it be to everyone's

advantage to offer some areas on Yahoo! as a public service with either no

banner ads, or those sponsored by non-profit agencies?

Afterthoughts

Just before I posted this column, I signed on the Yahoo Gambling Addiction site and discovered that there are now no banner ads accompanying the page. I don't know for sure why it was changed, but I think it's certainly in the best interest to keep any ads off something that could be a public service to people looking for emotional help on the web. I signed on once more and discovered the "learn to gamble" link once more. This is a problem that really needs to be looked into, and not just for Yahoo, but for any place that puts together links to help people overcome their personal demons.