The Guardian has teamed up with Vincent Hanna to organise "Live Wire" debates. Important politicians will agree to be questioned live (or "in real time" as we computer types normally say) in cyberspace. You do not have to submit any questions: you can, as I did for a while, just sit and watch the questions, the answers, and Hanna's interventions. Of course, you can submit questions in advance if you want, but during my visit to the inaugural debate it seemed that the questions were coming in as the discussion developed.
Paddy Ashdown was the first cyberpolitician to grace this exciting new political forum. I must say that I was not surprised to discover that Gladstone was his favourite prime minister, nor that he considered the Lib Dems to be the greenest of all the parties represented in the House of Commons. Likewise I was not surprised to discover that while the Lib Dems felt free to criticise the government over its handling of Northern Ireland, Paddy Ashdown could find no particular instance where he felt it would have been fair to make such a criticism. Heady stuff. No doubt Tribune of the People Hanna will find a way of opening up this new medium. I sincerely hope so. It has potential, but if it becomes just another place where the same old people say the same old things, then I wonder why anyone should bother with it. There are further Live Wire debates scheduled for April and May.
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There are now almost as many magazines about the internet as there are about computers. I tripped over a new one in Selfridges the other day: Internet Underground. The oxymoron meets cyberspace. It had to happen. I can't see the journal surviving, but it did have an interesting collection of peculiar Web sites, like the one devoted exclusively to the worst film Tom Hanks ever made, Joe Versus the Volcano, (http://sashimi.wwa.com/ ~shop net/jvv/) and the one dedicated to a museum of air sickness bags (www.pvv.unit.no/~bct/spypose/). Actually it's a cheat-there aren't any on display, merely a list of ones the author claims to possess. The University of Reading has created perhaps the world's first web site devoted entirely to palindromes. It also claims to have a palindromic web address: www.rdg.ac.uk/~sssbownj/jnwobsss~. This is stretching it. Isn't the whole point about palindromes that they have to make sense independently in some way? Anyone could make up stupid palindromes without trying. Where's the skill in thaht?
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Regular readers will know that I have been worrying about letting my children (aged eight and nine) play with the computer unsupervised because of my anxieties about the various types of obscenities they might trip over on the internet. CompuServe has now come to the rescue-well, sort of. They have established a list of "CyberNots." Their reference point is what they assume is suitable for the typical American 12-year-old.
There are 12 categories of naughtiness which you can block out of your system either indefinitely, or session by session. You do it by first signing up to the parental control software which CompuServe supplies for free for the first 12 months. Regrettably, it seems that you have to accept their idea of naughtiness. Otherwise it's back to square one.
The category "violence/profanity" is obvious enough but the profanity bit is defined by reference to "George Carlin's seven censored words." Who he? And what are they? I got six without any trouble. But what is the seventh? I don't have any problem with excluding "satanic/cult" either, but CompuServe's definition includes "affinity for evil, wickedness," which would invite the inclusion of a whole range of characters who daily parade themselves in our newspapers. What about that chap who put up poor pensioners' gas bills while awarding himself a squillion dollar comforter for his own old age?
"Drugs/drug culture" is another obvious exclusion. "Gross depictions" is somewhat vague but is apparently designed to cover "crudely vulgar, deficient in civilised behaviour, scatological impropriety, or the indecent depiction of bodily functions." Amen to that.
"Gambling" I don't have a problem with, but the consequence of excluding material on "alcohol, beer and wine" is that Britain's very own Good Pub Guide goes on to an internationally proscribed list, along with the devil worshippers, paedophiles and American neo-Nazis. It's a funny old world.
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I would dearly like to write more about continental European web sites or internet developments so please let me know of any interesting ones you might come across. Our cousins across the pond are still way ahead when it comes to designing interesting or useful sites. The institutions of Europe could certainly do with a bit of a shake-up-cybernetically speaking. The web site of the European parliament looks as if it was put together in a great hurry by a stagiaire at the end of a placement in the information technology section. Take a look at www.cec.lu. The Eurostat page is slightly better (www.cec.lu/comm/ eurostat), but elsewhere there is next to nothing. Allons mes amis.
John Carr
You can contact the Net Position on: 100643.455@compuserve.com
