I once was an EXPERT, then I got Internet.

	At one time it was possible for me to know my subject. The amount of 
knowledge available to me was finite. I could learn it. Computers were 
difficult and considered unnecessary. Internet was confusing and 
threatening. No one expected me to go there. Therefore, I could learn all 
that I could learn. Memorize 5 books on the subject and *I* was an expert.

	Then, connection software became easy. Internet became 
searchable. Knowledge from as far back as 10 years before anyone had a PC 
to ask for it and up to 10 minutes ago on some university mainframe  
suddenly became accessible. I didn't even have to learn computers.

	Oh, I wanted knowledge. I loved it. I understood what they meant
by the wonder of a new age born. The imagery of a wave of change
overtaking a society. Even an entire world. The agricultural wave, the
industrial wave, the service wave, and now the information wave. This was
the biggest, bestest toy ever. I could bathe in it. I could jump in and
splash around. I could spend all day with my head shoved into the 
data-stream and never even want to surface for air. And I got paid for 
playing with all of this! I was surfing the 4th age of man! This was 
wonderful imagery.

	So when did my ocean full of toys turn into a web? Oh I 
understood all of the analogys. I like analogys and use analogys all of 
the time. I explained surfing to my co-workers. I explained the new media 
references to the Super Information Highway and used them for awhile. I 
explained World Wide Web. But my references to 'the web' began to take 
on a darker tone than my younger surfing days.

	The web had more colors than my ocean did. It was sparkling and
seductive. It was even simpler to operate. I learned that I could stop
navigating the strands and just let them talk to me. It was my
responsibility. I was a leader after all. I had at some point finally
accepted the wondrous titles thrust at me of 'computer geek' and 'guru'.
And so I let the strands bring information to me. I made arrangements for
these marvelous mechanical mites to gather key locations on my subjects in
my name while I played and slept. I would then rush along the strands to
these sites and gather in these morsels. 

	But others laid in wait. Other gatherers on the web could detect
my activity and see my areas of interest. Those who were even more
efficient predators used 'my' web to seek me out. They began to use the
system to send me information they wanted me to have.  But what was the
harm? It was information. It was my treasure of knowledge that I sought
anyway. I became an even more efficient gatherer. 

	But somehow, and somewhere, I stopped being an expert. Instead I
became a researcher. I had stopped knowing all that was available on the
subject and had become the gatherer of more than I could ever know. Stacks
upon stacks of information was coming into my web faster than I could
digest it. In so short a time I learned that there was far more to know
now, then when I had known it all. I discovered how very very many there
were who knew more than I did. More than I ever could. And I learned that
many of them were just now entering the web. From high schools. 

	Despair set in. I had gone from being a local expert, to a
world-wide-wannabe. That was my www. I abandoned the newsgroups where
knowledgeable children waited to throw stones. I began haunting the IRC's
where the fools created by foolproof software hung out. In places where
everyones knowledge had to be in their head, not in their research skill,
I could still hold out. Soon, that wasn't enough. I found myself spending
more and more time in the MUDs and MOOs. Playing games in the asylums of
the virtual world. Dreaming of my surfer days, and waiting for the day
when the retirement home has a holodeck. I hate this monstrous web. 

I was an EXPERT, then I got Internet.