What does the internet mean to you?

i feel obliged to mention that im a william gibson fan, and i suspect that's where my thoughts come from on this heh..

YOU stole my definition! I've always "seen" it as a galaxy - and one of which I'm allowed - in fact encouraged - to plumb its limits. So far, its limits seem bounded by the fallibility of human intellect, but that's not stopping me!

I give up. I sat here for about 5 minutes typing and then retyping then it dawned on me; I'm going to need a lot longer then 5 minutes to try and figure out "Everything" that I feel about the internet. I guess it is sort of like dating someone, after a few years you forget why you even started dating in the first place. Now, me and the internet are like an old married couple, too many experiences together too sum it up into one 5 minute post.

after years of drawing pictures to explain to clients how the internet works I now automatically see it as one of those cloud shaped things with lots of lines coming out of it going to servers.

Yeah yeah, romance is dead :(

In terms of feeling it though, I tend to feel more like I'm in the Bill and Ted phonebox - sorta zipping along with lots of choices and sometimes ending up somewhere I didn't mean to be (but it's normally quite interesting) - I can't relate to the galaxy thing - to me that doesn't convey how close everything is on the 'net.

.....I don't think I really have a visualization for it. Unless you think of tinker-toys, with the little wooden hubs and all the little colored sticks that join them together. hehehe The "web" metaphor really works well enough, I guess I never felt the need to be original.

I feel the internet on an interpersonal level far more than I conceive of it visually.

Most of the time, I view the internet as an extension of my computer - like a hard drive full of information. I have a difficult time imagining using my computer when it's not connected to the internet.

It's a lot more than that, of course. This site and many others I frequent have a level of social interaction that I find very appealing. I work primarily from home, so my equivelent of poking my head out of my office and talking to a co-worker is very often going to a forum or using IM.

Ian

At first I thought of the usual network diagram, but that is how I describe it .. how I visualise it is dependant on context I think. The web is a lot easier to visualise than the internet I reckon .. Hmmm ...

I've always had this picture in my head.

I walk into an old amazing library. The one that always comes back to me is the legal library in the Law Society in Chancery Lane, London.

It's an old building that you enter through a nondescript door and walk up a nondescript staircase to a nondescript hallway and through a nondescript door. As I'm typing it conjures a picture of the hallways and never ending, rotating stairs in the Harry Potter movies.

As you walk through the door you find am amazing room, that seems to only be possible with the Dr's Tardis. with old books, stacked on shelves reaching for the sky. It's silent, bar an odd cough and splutter with people sitting at leather clad desks, with green glass lamps lighting their pads of notes.

There are ladders around the room, allowing you to climb and pick the books from the shelves, but unlike the Legal library in the Law Society offices, this is no limit of works or organisation. Every printed document, every word said aloud , every audio, video or commentary is hidden in it's depths. The shelves aren't 30 foot high, they carry on for miles into the sky and you'll see a porn magazine next to "Caring for Goldfish - The Untold Story"

Finding something to read so as to pass the time, to undertake research or simply find the the name of the right widget to purchase for your broken hoojimawatsit is a challenge and a half in itself just to find a widget tome, let alone the right page in it.

What you notice after a while though, is that many of the books change shape and size. What may be 200 pages one day, become 500 the next. An enjoyable read about cats and dogs, on a Monday may become about something completely different soon after it's anniversary, it also seems the author changes, to a Mr By Proxy!

All of these have no guide, no way of finding the information and what you do notice (although not at first) is the millions of people hurrying around all looking for the perfect reading material.

What is great though, is once you find that elusive, enjoyable read is the warm and sumptuous leather chairs by the fire. You sink into them and lose yourself for hours, days and sometimes years, with that ever growing book.

....that can be found. Its like trying to understand yourself.

:)

DaveN

Sometimes I visualize it as a vast ocean and my sites are just tiny leaves floating on it.

On other days it is more like a world made up of endless highway underpasses: tagged with graffiti, people living in cardboard boxes, hookers standing on the corners, and drug vials crunching underfoot.

Some of you have heard this from me before, and others will either think I am a sap or crazy, but here goes...

In my mind the web is like an incredibly sexy, incredibly intelligent,magical woman with beauty so strong that it almost hurts to look at her.

It is one of humanities greatest accomplishments, she will make the smart smarter, make the wicked more wicked, make the wise prosper and hurt the foolish. Through the web walls fall, revolutions happen, and freedom is gained. Very few actually appreciate her for for all that she's accomplished. Google and Spammers like us are part of her, yet we can only see her in part or at levels of abstraction.