History
My husband started me thinking last night about when exactly the web became part of my daily existence (the implication being that I'm spending a good deal more time on it these days than once was the case). "You weren't on the internet when we got married," he argued (the implication being that if I had been, perhaps he would have known enough to rethink the whole silly enterprise). That was in May, 1997, and as I was quick to point out, hubby couldn't have been more wrong. I ("we") could not have pulled off our wedding without the internet, as it took place out of state and was aided throughout by online planning. This got me wondering how exactly I went from being web-free to web-dependent in less than a decade (seriously, I have no idea how I practiced law for several years without it), and the following time-line began to take shape. I set it forth here because it was illuminating to reflect, and I wonder whether others have wended their way to here and now in like manner.
Fall, 1986; Los Angeles, CA. Discovered Honors Collegium computer lab at UCLA (a cubby-hole of a place in Kinsey Hall) while taking a course that looked a lot like this one. Put lab to use writing applications to get into law school and senior English thesis (WordPerfect 4.1 for DOS was hot stuff). Internet access? Maybe, 'cause UCLA was a trailblazer, but I'm betting this particular lab was too far north of Boelter Hall to have been wired. If it was, I never saw it.
Winter, 1987 - Winter, 1990; Berkeley and SF, CA. Used (and misused) dad's 286 mHz, IBM-clone throughout law school. Modem free. It astounds me now that the Well was going on right under my oblivious nose, although my hip friend Jen tried to clue me in. Used a computer lab infrequently on-campus and noticed that folks there were using something called e-mail. Was intrigued. Used Lexis and Westlaw for research in Boalt's library, which at that time did not run on personal computers but on their own branded workstations.
Winter, 1990 - Spring, 1991; Newport Beach, CA. Torture! Brought Dad's computer to work at new law firm. Still modem free, and no other online access. It boggles the mind how I accomplished any legal research. We begged library privileges off a firm upstairs, and when it was "really important" they'd let me on Lexis. My then-boyfriend's (now husband's) firm had better resources, so he helped out too.
Spring, 1991 - Spring, 1994; Newport Beach, CA. Firm moved office space and upgraded (created) network. Tiny p-to-p LAN (do people still use LANtastic?) with a 9600 baud modem in the library for Lexis access (heaven!). File and print-sharing big benefit of network. 5 1/4 inch floppies and WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS the standards.
Summer, 1994; Newport Beach and Los Angeles, CA. Friend's husband Peter using something called Prodigy. Couldn't get enough of it. Ol' 286 permanently donated to law firm. IBM PS1 486 sporting Windows 3.1 joined family. Exchanged first ever e-mails with Peter, first on Prodigy then on AOL (when it was still kinda cool and not a bit evil). We thought it was great we could now keep in touch and avoid toll calls. Loaded up Mosaic, then Netscape. I think we were able to get to Yahoo or some nascent form of it.
Spring, 1996; Newport Beach, CA. Convinced law firm to do major network overhaul. Windows NT on the server side (we nixed Novell). Win. 95 and Netscape 2.0 on all the workstations. E-mail galore (periodically vicious intrafirm exchanges of it, which did nothing for the outfit's long-term health). Welcome to Word (6.0). One shared ISDN line for 20 users, which we considered faster than the Indy time trials. Couldn't believe how much you could do and find online, and began sending "WOW - Websites of the Week" to all the lawyers. Learned the hard way 'bout viruses (nothing fatal, just illuminating).
September 20, 1996; Newport Beach, CA and Seattle, WA. My first-ever Amazon order (which frighteningly enough pre-dates the first Amazon page stored by the Internet Archive folks).
Fall, 1996 to Present; Newport Beach and Los Angeles, CA. Web part of all personal and business aspects of daily life. Planned wedding online, bought car online, looked for house online. Husband actually started using e-mail (at work). In the fall of 1998, switched firms to specialize in appellate law. Audible turned me on to EGR, and EGR turned me on to blogging. Read Cluetrain in 1999 and sent copies to everyone I thought could would care. Read Gonzo in 2001 and did the same. Started getting TechTV on cable in 1999 and began love/hate relationship with The ScreenSavers (love most of the content and guests; hate the shameless promotion and the strange looks it draws from the husband). Tried Homestead and Bigstep for do-it-yourself web sites - good exercises but some scary results (my poor dad still has to live with his Homestead site, as his publisher put it on the book jacket).
The proliferation of blogging tools holds such promise for folks like me, who have been spectating since early on and who may be inclined to participate. The question, I suppose, as Mr. Dvorak is apt to point out, is whether "we" hold promise for "you."
Tuesday, February 26, 2002 at 2:32PM