Problems Facing The World Wide Web

Problems Facing The World Wide Web

While flipping through the old pages of a book on Speech and Communication, my eyes caught

the following lines of Marshall McLuhan: “Someday the whole world would be a global village.” He

was simply referring to the idealized concept of a diverse community where people of different races

and cultures would commune together (New York of today, for example). Little did McLuhan know

that his words will one day become literal.

That day is today! After the short “dial-up rattle”of my ISP, I loaded Netscape Navigator into

my Windows platform. Within seconds, I pulled out my customized newspaper filled with every story

that fits my profile in sources raging from local, regional, national to countless countries around the

globe; it took me much more time to make the coffee! “Desi437 has sent you an instant message;

would you like to accept it?” Oh! That’s my friend Nisha, from India. Flipping back and forth

between the browser and the Instant Messenger, I managed to pull out the stats I needed on Ireland,

for my History class; a native web site helped greatly. What Jules Verne struggled to do in 80 days, I

more or less, completed in about eight minutes. Thanks to one of the greatest discoveries of the

century - the World Wide Web!

Before an individual can understand the different problems that the World Wide Web faces, it is

necessary to understand what it is exactly and how it is structured. The World Wide Web (www) or

simply “web,” as it is passionately called among users, can simply be defined as: a large area database

with a universe of information, providing access to users around the world. Visualize a large file

cabinet; it is in fact so large ...

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... users uphold the idea of

viewing the Internet or more specifically the web, as a frontier. The dictionary defines frontier as a

realm of limitless possibilities and few social controls. One might argue that it liberates the user from

the social constrains of his or her society because, no one person, owns the web. This is false! Every

user owns the Internet! If the resource cannot be shared, it is not useful and a useless technology

cannot liberate. Law, order and most important, organization are key components for the successful

operation of the World Wide Web.

Bibliography:

“World Wide Web People.” 26 October 1999.

Eisenberg, Daniel. “The Net Loves Old Media.” Time. November 1, 1999.

Wertheimer, Björkman, Lundberg and David Magnusson. Psychology - A Brief Introduction. Glenview: Scott,

Foresman and Company, 1968.