If you never thought you'd see the words "down to earth" and "writing about the Internet" in the same room, then think again. Welcome to TriTeca.
A lot of tech and Web writing seems to assume that if you're not a fanatic gear-head, then you're probably a technophobe. And if you're not wetting your pants over every innovation just because it's an innovation, then you're an "I read all my words on dead trees" nay-sayer. Most people probably fall somewhere in between -- healthy skeptics but not hardened cynics; interested in the developing technology but not totally sold on the idea that it's going to solve all of our problems.
TriTeca caters to everyone in-between the two techno extremes. People not ready to give up on books, but also not ready to blame computers for society's ills. People who simply want to learn more about the Internet. And the tech-junkies and the cyber-prophets, the hackers, the crackers, and the gurus will find something useful here, too.
The lead column is called Perspective... The One Thing the Web Really Needs. Dandy. Of course, the catch to all this well-grounded talk is that this is an Internet publication. How much perspective can an editor really have on a medium that's paying next month's rent?
Maybe not all that much.
But that's OK. "Perspective" doesn't mean "my," or even "our" perspective. It just means "some" perspective. As the pundits people the cosmos with a variety-pack of saviors and satans (Netscape good! Microsoft evil!), we'll try to cut the issues down to size.
Above all, though, "Perspective" means "yours." (Watch out, now, buzzwords coming atcha...) The Tripod Homepage Builder now lives on TriTeca, surrounded by tips, advice, links -- every resource we can think of (and we welcome suggestions) to help you build a bang-up page. This, I truly believe, is an incredibly important task. TriTeca, the Web, and yes, a lot of the hype, are about creating communities and encouraging diversity and individuality. Yes, a lot of homepages are little more than "Hey Here's A Picture of My Dog Write Me E-mail." But a lot of homepages are also strikingly beautiful, innovative, and honest. (And some of the dogs are really cute.)
Bottom line: I admit that I've got a stake, emotional and financial, in this medium. But I don't want to see it become a really spiffy, interactive, multimedia Times Square. I want the Web to succeed, but not as a crowded, visually over-stimulating paean to capitalism. The existing morass of sites can seem frustrating and chaotic at times, but maybe that's the price we pay for free expression. The alternative could be much worse. See, the other favorite prediction about the Web, besides electronic utopia and world peace, is a doom-and-gloom corporate commercial homogenization scenario that really does scare me. Imagine the Web as a global home-shopping network (in every school, no less).
So, TriTeca is here to cut through the hype, have a little fun, and get absolutely everyone to build a homepage. Build! Build! HTML until you see brackets in your sleep! Java until everything in your life pops up in an applet! Slap up that picture of Squibbles! Use Tripod's QuickPage builder and just tell everyone your favorite color! Share your fantasies, foibles, or pictures of your friends, but get it up. Every homepage out there is one more flava in the über-mix, and one more potential consumer with a vested interest in maintaining easy access to production (hence, no corporate meltdown into five main WebTV channels).
Ultimately, every homepage stands for one more voice that, when the time comes, will speak up to keep the bandwidth open to all.
All the love in the ether,
If you never thought you'd see the words "down to earth" and "writing about the Internet" in the same room, then think again. Welcome to TriTeca.