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  Crack the Bubbly! How long have you been on the Internet?

How long have you know about the Net?

Personally, I first caught wind of this futuristic Online world in 1993. At that time I was still plugging away on the BBS scene (Google BBS for more info :) ) and had no possible access to the Internet at that time.

Fortunately, late in 2003 I moved away to University which was a little ahead of the public school system and years ahead of the public. It took less than a month and I was hooked. It didn't even occur to me that the Internet may be even cooler if there were graphics... or if pages loaded in less than 2 or 3 minutes... because I WAS ONLINE!

I was connected to a Global community... - SNAP - just like that!

I kicked up my Pine Mail Text email browser 5 times a day, just because it was cool! I spent hours stumbling around clumsy webrings that I had no interest in, just because I could!

We grew savvy quickly back then (actually I think this is one of the footprints that the Internet has left on us all - once online, we all grow savvy more quickly!) and jumped on the new technological bandwagons as they came along; being among the first to open a Free Geocities webpage and learning HTML (everything was coded by hand!), joining ICQ, and eventually cheering when Google came around and revolutionized the way we could quickly access information.

Now hear we are in 2006. This year marks the 15th Birthday of the World Wide Web. 15 years! Most people I know have been online for less than 5, but for some of us, 15 years has ingrained the Internet so deeply into our daily lives, that we would be lost without it.

As the Internet approaches its 20's, Blogs and Podcasts and wide array of offline technologies has made the Web approachable, friendly, informative and indispensible.

So take a minute, sit back, and think about the impact the three letters, WWW, has had in your life over the past 5, 10 or 15 years, and tip your glasses to Tim Berners-Lee the next time you are sitting around with friends; and thank him for the convenience he has brought to your lives!

For more info on the history of the World Wide Web, click here

Michael Valiant   ¶ 14:48