The WWW: TMI?

In 1994, Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth extended a gloved hand and knighted Sir Tim Berners-Lee for his commitment to innovation, technology, and public service. Berners-Lee may not be a household name, but this computer programmer is largely responsible for the way hundreds of thousands of people conduct their day-to-day lives. Everything from tele-conferencing, Skyping, Netflix accounts, Facebook stalking, tweeting, blogging and live-streaming all stem from his idea in the 1980’s about how organize the big, messy information overload that was the European research organization CERN.

While working as a computer scientist at CERN, (also known as the European Particle Physics Laboratory, which was popularized in Dan Brown’s thriller The Da Vinci Code), Berners-Lee developed a program called the World Wide Web, "to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web).  The “Web”, as it came to be known, created a more user-friendly way to access the Internet, which previously was available for use only by those who knew complex programming languages. At first, only scientists and government entities were using it, but it soon turned into an unstoppable rolling stone of more magnitude than even Keith Richards.

In 1993 the Web became available for the public at large—Berners-Lee did not patent his invention, as he was committed to making the Web universally accessible. (http://www.nndb.com/people/573/000023504/). Today he is the head of the World Wide Web Consortium, which works “to further the potential of the Web to benefit humanity” (http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/). It is largely due to his lack of interest in the personal profit that the Web became such an important catalyst in the popularization of the Internet.

The computer used by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN that became the world's first web server. The post-it note reads "This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!" Photo courtesy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:First_Web_Server.jpg

Fast-forward thirty-two years to a generation that has never known what it is to search through an encyclopedia to write a research paper, to go to the store to buy a hard copy of a musical album, or to spend class time learning how to use the Dewey Decimal System. Looking for a job or an apartment?  You can still use a newspaper, but why would you when Craigslist.com or Indeed.com open up unlimited possibilities? As technology races forward, many of these pastimes are becoming obsolete at such a blindingly fast rate that it has become a daily challenge to understand the fastest way to search for information, watch a movie, or read a book. Many universities, such as Virginia Tech, actually require their students to own a personal computer (and they will lend you the money to buy one).

The legal system has had to catch up as well, as problems stemming from digital copy write infringement, malware, and national security re-frame what it means to break the law. Using the Internet in the United States means having nearly complete freedom to acquire or disseminate information in a way that has never before been accessible. The last time so much information was made available to the masses it was in the form of a printing press in Gutenburg.

What does this mean for society today? The verdict is still out and the debate rages on in the form of Wikileaks, The Freedom of Information Act, and illegal downloading. The battles are not only of the legal kind; they are also a matter of personal taste. Ask most anyone if they prefer an e-book or a physical one—whatever their stance on the matter, you will likely receive an impassioned reply. Music stores and bookstores are becoming more and more difficult to find with companies such as Amazon and eBay competing for business with much smaller overhead and much larger client base. In the realm of private industry and capitalism, the bottom line will eventually make the decisions. In the public sector, however, it may be a different story.

On their websites, public libraries provide links to such wonders as eBooks, eJournals, eAudiobooks, and eCollections. Anyone can check out databases or sign up for computer tutoring, and members can renew books online (http://www.alexandria.lib.va.us/client/home). As libraries struggle to keep up with the new digital age, government funding for them continues to decrease. With an economy that has been in a recession for the past five years, funding for libraries ranks somewhere between keeping the fire station staffed and the enforcement of bicycle laws.  Every year at the annual conference for the American Library Association, the discussion about library advancement continues with an increasing focus on the digital era. This summer in Chicago, librarians from all over the country will meet to debate “digital content and e-books, technology in libraries, innovation, books and authors, leadership, library advocacy, civic engagement, library marketing, and more” (http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/upcoming/annual).

There can be no underestimating the impact all this has had on public library use. According to a study conducted by the University of Washington Information School, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, 77 million Americans use public libraries to access computers and the Internet. While it was reported that social networking was the most popular form of computer usage at public libraries, educational purposes clocked in at a close second. According to the same report, 61 percent of young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 below the federal poverty line reported using pulbic library computers and the Internet for educational purposes.

Public libraries continue to be a Mecca for anyone who is interested in searching for information, knowledge, and opportunities, but thanks largely to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, these days that journey is conducted with fewer pencils and legal pads, and with more Macbooks and thumb drives.  

To Whom it May Concern

             In 1930’s America, during the height of the Great Depression, an out-of work architect named Alfred Mosher Butts turned his attention to a matter of great importance—the creation of a word game involving both chance and skill, that valued originality of word and thought, and created a hierarchy amongst the previously democratic English alphabet.  Butts converted his studio from one of architecture into one for game-making. He spent days carving twenty-six letters into small wooden blocks and until finally, he was satisfied.  Originally he called his invention “Criss-Cross Words”—luckily for modern-day enthusiasts, however, the name did not stick. (Imagine inviting everyone over for a casual game of “Criss-Cross Words”).  In the end, the name was changed to a catchier word meaning “to frantically grope” and the game Scrabble was born!

Alfred Butts at a Scrabble factory in Vermont in 1985. (Photo originally from http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2011/08/02/alfred-butts-scrabble/)

               The twenty-six letters Butts used for Scrabble were not always a forgone conclusion. The evolution of the modern-day English alphabet has been a long and arduous one. According to freedictionary.com, a letter is “any of a set of conventional symbols used in writing or printing a language, each symbol being associated with a group of phonetic values in the language”.  Prior to the most recent edit of the alphabet, both the ampersand (&) and the thorn (Þ) were proud members of the group, but the early printing press kept getting stuck every time it used either,  so they didn’t make the cut.  
             There is rarely a need to spell out a letter—usually they are only seen as a precursors to other words such as the “tee-shirt” or a “dee-jay”.  As any avid Scrabble player knows, however, spelling letters is a legitimate and valuable knowledge base. “Em” will get you four points, “Vee” lands you six, and “zee” is a whopping twelve pointer!  

  Point earning is not the only draw to this friendly form of fun—there are also anagrams (mixed up letters or exiled strumpet?) and palindromes (Yo, banana boy!) or maybe a quick game of “if-you-don’t-guess-this-word-soon-I’m-going-to-pretend-to-hang-you-on-this-paper”.

But it’s when those letters begin appearing in appealing combinations with each other that the real fun begins. Where would words be without letters? Short words, lengthy words, serious words and playful words make a monster mash and solemn smash until they start churning out such classics as Lolita, Moby-Dick and Calvin and Hobbes.

What if it’s NOT an alphabetic character that we’re talking about? Maybe it’s a missive, the old-fashioned pencil to paper snail mail kind of a letter. To be more specific, "a written or printed communication addressed to a person, company etc, usually sent by post in an envelope.” What if Herman Melville had written:  “Dear so-and-so, Call me Ishmael…etc.    Best, H.M.”  The original version is pretty good, but the brevity of a letter is an admirable quality as well.

            Other than the point value system hierarchy Butts created, letters in the USA today are becoming increasingly democratic. Now, as opposed to the days when the idiom “a man of letters” was invented, letters are a part of the public domain. They are learned in public schools, displayed on public bill boards, and read in public places. In public libraries, they are read in paperbacks and hard covers, on glowing digital screens and pop-up books. Anyone can walk up the stairs, pull open the doors, and access hundreds of thousands of letters, mostly arranged in ways that are entertaining, enlightening, and engaging. Taking the books home generally requires proof of residency, about which some libraries are more stringent than others.

 In Chicago, you can present a valid photo ID such as a driver’s license, as long as it proclaims a zip code in the 60647 region or somewhere thereabouts. For those without a permanent Windy City address, the Chicago Public Library System website demands “two pieces of current identification, one of which must include name and Chicago address. Accepted forms of ID are: personal check; current telephone, gas, electric or cable bill; mail with a current postmark (within 30 days) or voter registration card. (Post office box numbers are not accepted).

The public library system in Alexandria, Virginia requires photo ID as well, but is a bit more accommodating. According to their website, they extend lending privileges to “anyone who lives, works, owns property or attends school within the city limits of Alexandria…is temporarily living in Alexandria for less than six months… [and] those who live in the following counties or cities: Arlington, District of Columbia, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Prince George's, Prince William and Montgomery.”  The library system has come a long way from 1930’s Virginia, when Samuel Wilbert Tucker, an African-American lawyer and native of Alexandria, arranged a peaceful sit-in at the library to protest the library’s discriminatory practice of banning the black community from being issued library cards (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/swtucker.htm).  The court eventually ruled that separate libraries be established for whites and blacks in Alexandria.  Today, however,  the public library system is a unified whole for people of all races.

These days, having a public library is considered to be a sign of a sophisticated and forward-thinking community, in addition to being an inalienable right of all those who live within the boundaries of two specifically shining seas.  According to Donald Miller in City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America, after the Great Fire of 1871 destroyed the majority of Chicago, generous overseas donors sent thousands of books to the city to replace the ones they had lost. The only problem—at the time of the fire, Chicago did not yet have a public library. Embarrassed city leaders hurriedly threw together a makeshift one in an abandoned water tower to house their new collection.

Public libraries depend on their home communities for financial support.  Tax money keeps the doors open, but when times are tough, library budgets are usually some of the first ones to be trimmed. Their numbers may not be adding up, but the game is not over for them until their letters stop scoring points in communities nationwide.

 

           

Silent Symphony

proc·ess 

1.a systematic series of actions directed to some end

2.a continuous action, operation, or series of changes taking place in a definite manner: the process of decay.

3.Law

a.the summons, mandate, or writ by which a defendant or thing is brought before court for      litigation.

b.the whole course of the proceedings  in an action at law.

4.Photography . photomechanical or photoengraving methods collectively.

5.Biology, Anatomy . a natural outgrowth, projection, or appendage: a process of a bone.

It’s 10 in the morning, just a few minutes after opening. The building is waking up-- the processing has begun and movement begins to define the space. There are three, then five, then twenty. Users. The light coming in through the numerous ceiling windows is the clean light of hundreds of new days, one for each of us to use as we will.

Order is King here. Battles are fought every day against the commonplace disarray of everyday life, but they never end. On the first floor, a minor victory-the unused formal sitting room not meant for children or puppies, immaculately kept and watched over with mindful eyes. Upstairs, the prospects are not as good. Further from the watchtower, it's every teenagers basement den where furtive actions are less likely to be noticed. Purposeful disorganization.

pub·lic

1.of, pertaining to, or affecting a population or a community as a whole: public funds; a public nuisance.

2.done, made, acting, etc., for the community as a whole: public prosecution.

3.open to all persons: a public meeting.

4.of, pertaining to, or being in the service of a community or nation, especially as a government officer: a public official.

5.maintained at the public expense and under public control: a public library; a public road.

Each table becomes the temporary home of an occupant, who for the time being creates a miniature universe to fill the surrounding air.  Those who don't associate with a table, the free orbiters- they wander around, each with the uncertain gait of a person who is looking for something without knowing exactly what it is he is searching for. Maybe they will find an answer before they leave today, but nothing is certain. 

con·so·nance

1.accord or agreement.

2.correspondence of sounds; harmony of sounds.

3.Music . a simultaneous combination of tones conventionally accepted as being in a state of repose. Compare dissonance ( def. 2 ) .

4.Prosody .

a.the correspondence of consonants,  especially those at the end of a word, in a passage of prose or verse. Compare alliteration ( def. 1 ) .

b.the use of the repetition of consonants  or consonant  patterns as a rhyming device.

5.Physics . the property of two sounds the frequencies of which have a ratio equal to a small whole number.

The tension between future and past is palpable, physical, and unavoidable. If the pursuit of order is a battle, this struggle is the war. Digital harbingers of...what exactly?  Mechanical clacking, frustrated sighing, laughter, muted discussions, the jangling of a cell phone all mingle together, a cacophonous symphony of sound that is the prelude to Act One.  This is a noisy place for anyone who is listening. Even the quiet here is full of an expectant sort of chatter and I tilt my head to listen better.

in·quir·y

noun, plural in·quir·ies.

1.a seeking or request for truth, information, or knowledge.

2.an investigation, as into an incident: a Congressional inquiry into the bribery charges.

3.the act of inquiring  or of seeking information by questioning; interrogation.

4.a question; query.

He is searching for a book. She is searching for a job. She is searching for a quiet space. He is searching for a free wireless connection. She is searching for someplace to get warm, just for a little while. Everyone here is on a quest, at the beginning or middle or end, or maybe it is still just an idea, but this place, it is the nexus of a thousand odysseys.

con·nect

1.to join, link, or fasten together; unite or bind: to connect the two cities by a bridge; Communication satellites connect the local stations into a network.

2.to establish communication between; put in communication: Operator, will you please connect me with Mr. Jones?

3.to have as an accompanying or associated feature: pleasures connected with music.

4.to cause to be associated, as in a personal or business relationship: to connect oneself with a group of like-minded persons; Our bank is connected with major foreign banks.

5.to associate mentally or emotionally: She connects all telegrams with bad news.

A  stranger asks for my assistance and I oblige. He is trying to apply for a job with Old Dominion Power, but his resume is trapped on a thumb drive.  We work through the process together, a team, and he is once again hopeful. We bond over a small coincidence, our child-size computers, dirty blue netbooks that are our faithful tools. Afterwards, he hands me his card and suggests I call the local recruitment office. Be one of the few, the proud. A new start, where everyone has a place to be and a job to do. The home of the brave, even here in this, a neutral ground, a place of peace. I put the card in my wallet. Thank you, I say.

sys·tem

1.an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole: a mountain system; a railroad system.

2.any assemblage or set of correlated members: a system of currency; a system of shorthand characters.

3.an ordered and comprehensive assemblage of facts, principles, doctrines, or the like in a particular field of knowledge or thought: a system of philosophy.

4.a coordinated body of methods or a scheme or plan of procedure; organizational scheme: a system of government.

5.any formulated, regular, or special method or plan of procedure: a system of marking, numbering, or measuring; a winning system at bridge.

I take my leave after about an hour. Walking down the stairs, back on to the street- I feel as though I have been napping too long but am not yet ready to wake up. The quiet is different outside, softer somehow, even as it is punctuated by car horns and the overhead planes raking through the air from Reagan.  The building is hulking behind me, waiting until next week when I will be inevitably drawn in once again to the pulsating glow of florescent lighting and squeaky aroma of too clean carpets. I give it a little salute, then turn my back and walk away.


Definitions courtesy of dictionary.com