NET CULTURE
THE ON-LINE
WORLD
· Jam on-line with rehearsal
spaces on the Internet
On the Internet, geographically dispersed musicians can connect themselves and have a multi-user jam session together. Software programs by companies like REG Rocket Surfers, or Sseyo, support live jamming and composing on the Net. They create virtual rehearsal spaces where every participant can hear what everyone else is doing and contribute sounds of his own. What is now creative fun for the minority of users could soon, with improved bandwidths and file transmission rates, become a more common practice which might result in musical innovation as well.
· Millions of Netizens
explore Mars live
The Pathfinder expedition in summer 1997 was a defining moment for the Net, when millions of Netizens watched live images of Mars. The images were transmitted to a web site from cameras attached to a mobile vehicle exploring the planet’s surface. A similar telerobotic vehicle is exploring the Andes. With NASA and other space agencies keen on fostering public support for their projects we can be sure of seeing further spectacular live image feeds from space expeditions or permanent stations like the Hubble Space Telescope.
· Earth Watch provides 3-D
weather forecasts
With the help of video, the Earth Watch web site creates a 3-D representation of the weather. The satellite and radar images are mostly of the US and are updated regularly using worldwide forecasts. Visitors can view cold and warm fronts, high and low pressure zones, soar through storms or zoom in and out of hurricanes. There is also a text explanation of weather patterns.
NET VALUES
· Netiquette ensures good
manners on-line
When the Internet opened to the public and millions of users surged into cyberspace, a basic set of rules for on-line behavior evolved. Named after Virginia Shea’s book Netiquette (derived from ‘network etiquette’), anybody new to cyber culture is urged to learn Netiquette before taking part in chat groups on the Internet.
· gURL gets teenage
girls on-life
gURL is the largest on-line community of teenage girls. The website was started at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, USA, combining light hearted exploration of Internet technologies with a virtual meeting and advice forum for teenage problems. The site offers free e-mail, chat worlds, interactive fashion and make up rooms, animated cartoons and essays about favorite pets, first pimples and safe sex advice.
· Information temple for the
Web’s lost information
Buddhist monk Shokyu Ishiko has set up a virtual temple for lost information on the Web. Chief priest of the Daioh Temple in Kyoto, Japan, Ishiko’s web site stores out dated software, business projects or proposals that have failed and files earmarked for trash on computers.
