The Fast Web
In my continuing award winning series of explorations of Web metaphors entitled "Web Metaphors That Get Results" today I turn our collective attention to the speed issue. It seems to me that the Web moves pretty fast. It is also patently apparent to me that information carried on said conduit also moves pretty darn fast too. By information I don't mean literally bits and bytes, although they do constitute most of what passes for traffic on the Web, but ideas, memes, emails, pictures, blogs in fact anything which passes from one person to the next. Another immutable fact is that the Web is largely invisible. Yes, some fatbrains have produced complex wire-mesh brain like diagrams of what the major connections of the Web would look like but nobody has really ever seen it, and likely never will.
Hold that thought...
You are standing on an airfield, its a sunny day and a deep blue sky hangs all around. Its warm, twenty-eight in the shade but not too uncomfortable. You are standing next to a small Cessna class single prop. The propeller is wooden with some kevlar round the edges. As it stands motionless you can get close enough to touch it, it's solid, it exists in real form and you even notice a couple of nicks on the leading edge of one of the blades - it's definitely seen some action. You stand clear as the pilot sparks the ignition and the once lifeless blades jerk into motion and within an instant they're gone. You're aware of something lying between you and the cockpit but you can clearly see the pilot and the full body of the cabin. The propeller is rotating so quickly its virtually invisible.
That's what happens when things move quickly, they blur, they appear virtually invisible. And so as the Web moves quickly, it too appears invisible.
OK class, that's all for today, next week I need your completed assignments, 4 o'clock Tuesday and no excuses.
In my continuing award winning series of explorations of Web metaphors entitled "Web Metaphors That Get Results" today I turn our collective attention to the speed issue. It seems to me that the Web moves pretty fast. It is also patently apparent to me that information carried on said conduit also moves pretty darn fast too. By information I don't mean literally bits and bytes, although they do constitute most of what passes for traffic on the Web, but ideas, memes, emails, pictures, blogs in fact anything which passes from one person to the next. Another immutable fact is that the Web is largely invisible. Yes, some fatbrains have produced complex wire-mesh brain like diagrams of what the major connections of the Web would look like but nobody has really ever seen it, and likely never will.
Hold that thought...
You are standing on an airfield, its a sunny day and a deep blue sky hangs all around. Its warm, twenty-eight in the shade but not too uncomfortable. You are standing next to a small Cessna class single prop. The propeller is wooden with some kevlar round the edges. As it stands motionless you can get close enough to touch it, it's solid, it exists in real form and you even notice a couple of nicks on the leading edge of one of the blades - it's definitely seen some action. You stand clear as the pilot sparks the ignition and the once lifeless blades jerk into motion and within an instant they're gone. You're aware of something lying between you and the cockpit but you can clearly see the pilot and the full body of the cabin. The propeller is rotating so quickly its virtually invisible.
That's what happens when things move quickly, they blur, they appear virtually invisible. And so as the Web moves quickly, it too appears invisible.
OK class, that's all for today, next week I need your completed assignments, 4 o'clock Tuesday and no excuses.