istics, literature...
everything. I was finding the best and the worst, but as a
discerning user, I had to sort it all out, and make choices. I
particularly liked the software for email, file transfers and
dial-up connections. At that time I had problems with a program
called Paradox and character sets that I couldn't use. I tried
my luck and threw out a question in a specialist news group. I
got answers from all over the world. Everyone seemed to want to
solve my problem!"

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded in October 1994
to develop interoperable technologies (specifications,
guidelines, software, and tools) for the web, for example
specifications for markup languages (HTML, XML, and others),
and to act as a forum for information, commerce, communication
and collective understanding.

The "Technorealism" movement started on the web in March 1998.
Technorealism was "an attempt to assess the social and
political implications of technologies so that we might all
have more control over the shape of our future. The heart of
the technorealist approach involves a continuous critical
examination of how technologies - whether cutting-edge or
mundane - might help or hinder us in the struggle to improve
the quality of our personal lives, our communities, and our
economic, social, and political structures" (excerpt from the
website). The document Technorealism Overview was approved by
hundreds of people signing their names. It stated that,
"regardless of how advanced our computers become, we should
never use them as a substitute for our own basic cognitive
skills of awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment."

= The internet and other media

In 1998, people were also wondering whether the print media and
the internet would be antagonistic or complementary. Would the
internet swallow up the print media? Would the internet get the
top place in the hearts of people buying books or subscribing
to magazines? The internet was about to change books and other
media in a sweeping way, like the printing presses in the past.
Authors, booksellers, librarians, printers, publishers and
translators were watching the storm, or participating in it in
heated debates on copyright issues and distribution control.

In some African countries, the internet meant more information.
The number of newspapers was very low compared to the
population figures. Each copy was read by at least twenty
people. In January 1997, during