New York - July 1997

Well, we did it. We braved the crowds (some 140,000 people milling about!) at New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center last month and attended PC EXPO and its Internet subset, WEB.X - just to take a reading at one of the year's biggest Internet and computer tech events on what's hot, what's being pushed, and what's interesting people about the Internet.

It was almost impossible to move in the noisy, colorful main hall, where the major players' displays were - Microsoft, IBM, Apple, etc. The lavish booths reminded us again of the money involved in this industry. And WEB.X's popularity (twice the size it was last year, at its launch) was also a statement - highlighting the fact that the Web in a few short years has become a given and that there is a whole huge section of the show just for Web-specialist companies. And that is in addition to the Web products that were being displayed - and aggressively marketed - by large technology companies.

Speakers
The show's main speaker was Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Computer Corp., the company that shook up traditional computer companies with direct sales. You might be interested to know that Dell now sells nearly $2 milllion dollars worth of PCs a day just through its Web site (who says people aren't doing transactions on the Internet?!). Ellen Hancock, executive vice president, advanced technology at Apple Computer, showcased the Mac's next operating system (OS 8), code-named Rhapsody, and Apple's latest media technologies. And of course Microsoft was represented, in this case by Steve Ballmer, EVP, sales and support, talking about business-applications development in "the age of the Internet."

People we ran into
But, as all conference-goers know, what's important about these shows is not the number of booths you visit or talks you hear but who you meet there. One industry player we ran into was Kristin Marks, an author, technology consultant, and mother of two teenagers who are very active in the online world. Her most recent book is "Click! 101: Computer Activities and Art Projects for Kids and Grownups" (Simon & Schuster), and she is a contributor to Network World magazine and senior analyst at Networks Are Our Lives, Inc., which consults on networking strategies and does product reviews for corporations. Kristin also serves on the advisory board of PC EXPO.

The conference mostly caters to businesspeople looking for the latest and best uses of technology, but we asked Kristin if she saw any business-family synergies at the conference: "In general, the educational opportunities and needs of the nation's kids are overlooked by the business community. Which is too bad. Three years ago I participated in an 'Ask the Experts' panel, where a member of the audience stood up and asked what the corporate community could do to ensure an employable work force. I literally grabbed the microphone and said - teach elementary children to read and think. He was a little confounded. I think he was expecting a comment on technical training programs for adults focused on specific skill sets. But I firmly believe that success is about learning to think creatively and analytically."

A parent's approach
We asked Kristin what she thought about the Web's usefulness to parents and educators, and she shared some strong feelings as a parent. "Every day more resources, are available on the Web. Web access is becoming easier and easier to get. It's popping up in very public places like the public libraries. The challenge today is to compensate for the lack of organization of the available resources. The use of blocking or filtering programs to prevent access to content not appropriate for your children are rudimentary and frankly skirt the real issues of parenting and educating [see below for more on this type of software]. Educated people are curious people. Curiosity is satisfied by exploring. Learning when to explore in another location is a valuable skill that needs to be taught and learned by young Web surfers. Leaving kids alone for hours at a time is not one of the proactive parenting techniques. Sharing the experience of exploring the Web with kids is much more effective - just like watching a TV program with kids is better because you can answer questions and talk about anything that comes up."

Kristin sees the Web as a convenient research tool for families and schools - bigger than any encycopedia at the library and as close as the nearest PC. "There is no way that a teacher/parent can know the answer to every question that starts 'Why?' And not every answer to the 'Why is the sky blue?' question is on the Web. But it will be very shortly. Searching for answers, investigating further, and organizing the information that you find is the very definition of learning. Who wouldn't want to do this? Without driving, by the way? Less fossil fuel use and frayed nerves."

The view from Sweden
We also ran into three representatives from the Swedish Youth Council for Information Technology who were visiting the US on a fact-finding mission. They had been to Washington, DC, and Silicon Valley looking at ways to promote the use of information and communications technology among young people at school, during leisure time, and when entering the labor market. Coming as they do from a country where government plays an active role in social policy, they said they were struck by the laissez faire approach in the US to fostering young people's use of information technology. They said they were inspired by all the entrepreneurial activity in Silicon Valley and the role of venture capital therein - and eager to find ways to bring that activity to Sweden.

Gear on display
We heard a couple of interesting comments about the hardware on display at PC EXPO. Larry Magid - educator, former editor of PC magazine, and syndicated columnist told us, "There were a number of 'family-oriented vendors.' I was impressed at the digital cameras I saw from Toshiba, Panasonic, Olympus, and other vendors. The technology is still overpriced and a bit immature, but it's moving rapidly. I was also impressed at Dragon System's Naturally Speaking speech-recognition software. It's the first to allow you to speak in a natural, normal voice and still be recognized. Today it's aimed at business and professional users, but it has implications for early childhood use." Kristin Marks, too, felt the gear of greatest interest to families were the digital cameras: "They were a hot item. Taking pictures that are recorded on 3-1/2 inch diskette, instead of film, would be handy for sending snapshots to grandma via the 'Net."

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On CDA, a landmark decision for Web-sters
By now we all know that the United States Supreme Court's 7-2 ruling last month that the 1996 Federal Communications Decency Act is unconstitutional. In its first free-speech ruling involving the Internet, the court upheld the decision last July by a federal court in Philadelphia that the CDA violates the First Amendment. Parents and supervising adults cannot count on the government to keep children from any offensive online material.

However you feel about that, have you considered that the ruling could draw parents and kids closer - at least those who use the Internet? The government will not censor material on the Web. That leaves it up to parent, grandparent, teachers, concerned adults and children to use the Internet together.

Not just the Supreme Court but the very existence of the Web itself - as a global grassroots learning and communications resource - has handed parents and children an unprecedented opportunity to work and play together online as a family and teaching unit. Where TV may isolate the individual into a world of his or her own, computer use by young children requires some real guidelines, some major support and presence of the adult, and this ruling forces that issue.

Resources, post-CDA
There are all kinds of helpful resources for parents and kids on the Web. Check out Larry Magid's site, Safe Kids Online, for some helpful rules for kids who use the Internet. Larry has a recent column in the site about what he views as the real threat to kids online.

Then there's The Parents' Guide to the Information Superhighway by The Children's Partnership, a nonpartisan advocacy group that publishes information about "the needs of America's 70 million children."

The 57,000-member American Library Association has a fund of links and Web publications in its "ALA Resources for Parents and Kids."

Parent Soup has a discussion group on the subject called the "OnLine Decency Debate."

For those of you interested in exploring the full spectrum on this issue, there are a few sites that come down on the pro-CDA side of Internet life. They include the site representing Donna Rice-Hughes's lobby group, Enough is Enough, one of the CDA's most outspoken proponents. Other such sites can be found in Yahoo!.

And there are products for screening Web sites. Browsers for online services give the option of enabling "ratings" of sites (but someone else's "kid ok" may not be your "kid ok" site). And there are programs you can install on the computer that are supposed to screen material but, as the court ruling pointed out, none of them are infallible. Here are some examples:

• Cyber Patrol
• Net Shepherd
• Surf Watch
• Net Nanny

There are also some Internet service providers that offer kid-friendly, or types of screening, services. Two of them, according to Interactive Week magazine, are ClarkNet, with its "KidzNet," and Net Rail - though we couldn't readily find reference to these services in their Web sites. If these ISPs were smart, they'd market these services better, at least within their own sites, so parents could at least find them! Does their failure to showcase family-oriented services show some ambivalence, or just an ignorance about marketing and Web site organization? We'll let you decide!

We'd love your feedback - and thoughts on what you'd like to see in future editions of The Sage Letter. Do e-mail us.

Look for our next edition, Aug. 7, about homeschooling and the 'Net.