Week Three: Once More Onto The Breach

Websites for Everyone:

This is not the first time I have worked towards building a website. 

The first time I made a website, it was in Grade 10 Computer Science, in 1999, and I was using html to try and design a very simple, unexciting webpage for a class project. As I recall, I'd decided to make a Smashing Pumpkins fansite (dating myself yet further) and the process of building it was absolutely painful. I got a fairly good grade on the final result, but I remember being rather disappointed by the appearance of the site, though it was no worse than probably half the pages on the Internet at the time.

Fast forward to the year 2013 and I'm working on building a website again, using Weebly, which allows me to build a website without any special training or programs, using a vastly more intuitive interface and with a result that is considerably more impressive than the first one. Several of the options I have now, such as including a blog, embedding YouTube videos and such, didn't even exist back in the year before the turn of the millennium, let alone were possible to create without any real difficulty. Even five or six years ago, website design was still primarily for those with technical savvy, and now today, virtually anyone can make an attractive, functional website and furthermore, do it for free.

Cyber Citizenship- Some Brief Musings:

With greater power and vastly increased options, however, does come a certain added responsibility. It was more or less understood back in 1999 that I was free to pilfer virtually whatever image I could from the Internet, as there was no organized Creative Commons. Today, we have more opportunity and thus, more obligation to act as responsible digital citizens.

It wasn't that long ago that it seemed that living the cyber-pirate's life, so to speak, was not only an acceptable means of existing in cyberculture, but the only ones. The music industry was flush with enormous profits, most software was priced well outside of any reasonable budget and it was exceedingly easy to portray the people that built sites like Napster and the Pirate Bay as modern-day Robin Hoods.

Today, the situation has changed vastly. If you don't want to pay the outrageous, ridiculous sums for, say, Microsoft Office, there are legitimate free options such as OpenOffice or Google Docs. The rise of Creative Commons has placed a huge amount of media for free use by anyone. While many things remain unaffected thus far by this change, it seems that the "wild west" of the Internet is slowly settling down somewhat in favor of a somewhat more organized communal approach. Thankfully for all concerned, the Wikimedia Foundation seems to be the light of the future for the Internet, rather than 4chan.

Cyber citizenship, with its associated rights and responsibilities is a real thing and for many young people today it is probably just as important in their daily lives as their national citizenships are. We're used to thinking of globalization as a vaguely sinister concept, foisted on us by powerful corporate and media interests for the exclusive profit of a tiny cabal. Cyber-citizenship, however, offers us the potential to create an alternative globalization, sharing the benefits of technology and creativity with all people. While obviously there will always be a leading role for technical experts in Web 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, entry into this online world is relatively easily obtained. This is something that we will have to teach children about, as it will be as much a part of their daily lives as their national heritage.

In the meantime, though, I have a website to finish.