The old web: October 28, 1996 issue of New Thinking

October 28, 1996 New Thinking:
The old Web

Website content management

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October 28, 1996

The old Web

By Gerry McGovern

In 1996, the World Wide Web might as well be a 1850’s technology. From a delivery point of view, the Web is more reflective of a technology that was developed during the middle of the last century, rather than at the end of this one. In 1996, the Web is nothing like MTV or Wired Magazine, though many are valiantly trying to turn it into such visually intensive mediums.

They will fail. In 1996, ‘97, ‘98, they will fail. In 1999 they may well fail too. Maybe at the turn of the century, they will begin to find success.

By then however, the Web will be becoming TV will be becoming the Web, in such a way that nobody will know or care too much what is what. People won’t be worrying whether they’re on the Web, the TV, the Video or the Game Console, because they’ll all come pretty much from the same box in the room.

Rather, people will think of areas within an all-encompassing cyberspace. Places where they will go for education, to find company, news, entertainment, games; maybe even a life.

Back to the Web in 1996. Bandwidth. What makes the Web like mid-Nineteenth century technology is its lack of bandwidth. Bandwidth is the transportation channel, and the Internet bandwidth channel in 1996 is akin to the transportation channels which existed back then.

The Internet in 1996 has its jumbo jets, its fast cars and trains, its articulated lorries, all revving up to bring us their digital delights. The problem is that the jumbos are sitting on grass runways. How the hell are they going to take off? And even if they do take off, where is the traffic control? Worse, how are those big hulks full of animation, video, sound and 3D going to land down puny telephone runways, only to probably crash into medium-spec home computers?

All revved up and nowhere to go.

Things are not going to get much better over the next 2-3 years. The transportation channels of copper were designed for speedy motorbikes, not big, bulky digital jumbos. Sure, fiber is on its way, sure cable holds promise, sure the satellites of love are beckoning, but the point is that right now and for quite a while, they’re not ready for primetime.

In fact, it is likely that things will get worse before they get better. Today, there is a far greater rush onto the Internet, than there is progress in building a larger infrastructure to meet the traffic. We’re going to see traffic jams.

We’re going to see men-at-work signs and we’re going to curse them and their damned delays even if they are building the future.

Unless you have deep pockets, unless you’re doing R&D using defined and stable channels, or unless you have access to private, high-bandwidth networks, you should plan to deliver websites and emails that can be carried on sleek, efficient digital motorbikes.

Remember, that when the first letters arrived, they were seen as a glorious step forward for communication. Composed with the Internet’s strengths in minds, Internet letters (email) and sleek information libraries (websites) are an equally glorious step forward.

The Internet in 1996 may not be ready for the jumbos, but driven with the right information, those nifty digital motorbikes can deliver.

Gerry McGovern

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The Internet in 1996 may not be ready for the jumbos, but driven with the right information, those nifty digital motorbikes can deliver.