NetWorld! Tour

Ahead you'll find scores of links to White Rabbit Toys, the brains behind the Internet Underground Music Archives, an encryption-hip priest, and scads of other folks from NetWorld!: What People Are Really Doing on the Internet and What It Means to You.

You can "visit" Bill Gates' $30-million estate, analyze your congress member's political gifts, or see electronic matchmaking in action.

Enjoy! Add the Tour to your bookmark list for future reference, and feel free to link from your home page. No permission required. -- David H. Rothman, rothman@clark.net

SHORTCUTS: Chapter 1: The Terrain… Chapter 2: Business on the Net: From White Rabbit Toys to Intel Inside… Chapter 3: EntertaiNet: A Few Musings on Net.Rock, Leonardo da Vinci and Bill Gates, Bianca's Smut Shack, and David Letterman in Cyberspace… Chapter 4: Pulped Wood versus Electrons: Can the Print World Learn to Love the Net?… Chapter 5: Wired Knowledge: When They Let a Murderer Loose on the Internet… Chapter 6: Governments and the Net: Making Sure Orwell Was Wrong… Chapter 7: The Electronic Matchmaker… Will there be a Lots-of-Frills Tour with fancier graphics and all that?… Better view of NetWorld!'s cover… The inimitable exclamation mark in the title… This NetWorld! is no trade show… Other priceless information about the book and me… Advice for parents and teachers... Caveats, including a few words on Web browsers…

[Return to top of main Tour page or, if need be, top of shortcuts]

What? You haven't heard of NetWorld!? This book isn't a how-to, but rather a for-fun tour of the Net, with stories and personalities galore--as well as serious commentary on such topics as wired schools, electronic books, Clipper, and, of course, the net.censors of the U.S. Senate.

You can order from Prima Publishing (telephone 916-632-4400 or 1-800-632-8676, fax 916-632-4405, e-mail steveb@primapub.com) or your local bookstore. Random House distributes NetWorld in the States, and it should be soon available in Canada, the U.K., and many other countries. The ISBN is 0-7615-0013-8, and the format is hardback.

This page is for the discerning who've already plunked down their US$22.95 or whatever. The fare box is broken, though, so you're very welcome here anyway. I've tried to offer plenty even for readers unfamiliar with NetWorld! And if you've already bought the book? You're still ahead. You'll know why, for example, I included a pointer to Tipper Gore's bio in the middle of the links for the EntertaiNet chapter. Too, you'll get other context and analysis missing from this collection of links.

Links often appear in the order that the NetWorld! book mentions the topics--but not always. For example, in the list of links for Chapter One, I skipped many subjects covered more thoroughly later on. And within chapters I've grouped related links. In Pulped Wood versus Electrons, for example, you'll see most of the magazine-related links in one batch.

Meanwhile, five caveats for all:

I list Net address of certain people in the NetWorld! book, and some others, too, but please don't e-mail just for the sake of e-mailing. Make sure you have something intelligent to ask or say. Except for Bill Gates, whose address is publicized through his column, folks have had a chance to voice objections to being included. They will decide, case by case, whether to reply. Obviously they'll be more likely to respond if you've first done your homework--such as by dropping by their Web areas. Within the limits of my schedule I myself will try to answer everybody. No miracles promised. Hey, you want me to have time to write the next one, don't you? But, look, I type fast.

Links come and go. I'll do what I can do keep them up to date.

Your Net provider may not carry all the newsgroups mentioned here. What's more, like links, newsgroups can fade away.

Not all Web software works the same way. Some browsers won't take you directly to electronic mail or Usenet newsgroups. You may have to fire up your email program or newsreader.

Yes, this page will look best in newer versions of Netscape. But it should be readable in all major browsers. Let me know of problems. (Update: An alert reader named Dan Strychalski reminds me that browsers adhering strictly to W3C standards won't pick up Windows-specific tags.-DR, March 16, 1998.)

Thanks for dropping by!

David H. Rothman, rothman@clark.net

P.S. I've included many, many bonus links to people and places not in the book.

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WILL THERE BE A LOTS-OF-FRILLS TOUR?

Perhaps. But most readers of this book are still using 14.4Kbps modems, and I thought I'd show mercy and allow for faster navigation. I could offer two versions of this page, of course, but that would make it a little harder to keep it updated. For the same reason, I'm made this page one long file rather than a series of them, though I may change my mind.

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ABOUT THE INIMITABLE EXCLAMATION MARK IN THE TITLE

I'm innocent. The exclamation and the rest of the title came from Prima. Hey, they're nice people and they tell me it's just right for the bookstores. Blame me for most everything else.

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THIS NETWORLD! IS NO TRADE SHOW

Yes, yes, Prima and I know about NetWorld+Interops. Would you believe, at least several other areas of the Net are using "NetWorld." But, hey, no one else has that exclamation mark. Beyond that, we're taking pains to make sure people on the Net don't confuse the book and the show.

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OTHER PRICELESS INFORMATION ABOUT NETWORLD! AND ME

Check out the FAQ on my No-Frills Home Page. To answer the Famous Writer questions right here: "Any time but often late at night"… "With a computer, of course."… "486DX, AMD chip running at 100Mhz, 2.6 gig of hard disk space, Win 95, Eudora, Netscape, WinVN." "I use Word for Windows, but I go back to the WordStar days, so I've set up Word with the same S-E-X-D cursor diamond about which I wrote in The Silicon Jungle. Committed the same sacrileges against XyWrite. Nothing beats that diamond"…

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ADVICE FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS

Ninety-five percent of the links here are G-rated in effect, just like traffic on the real Net. Still, out of respect for parents with young children, I may do a version of this page without mention of Brandy's Babes or the half dozen other items that may offend. I'll welcome feedback in this department, as well as other suggestions for a K-12 version. Meanwhile, one possibility would be to use a screening tool like SurfWatch to block out offensive links. Even that isn't foolproof, of course. The best protection is to keep up--in a polite way--with your child's travels on the Net. Be reasonable. Don't panic just because you see many graphics files on his or her hard disk, for example; find out what images they show. Also check out syndicated columnist Larry Magid's tips on Child Safety on the Information Highway, sponsored by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Interactive Services Association…

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