Internet citizenship

Work on good prose has three steps: a musical stage when it is composed, an architectonic one when it is built, and a textile one when it is woven.

Walter Benjamin, 1928, One-Way Street, "Caution: Steps"

Everyman, a publisher

"Architectonic" - now there's a word that you don't hear every day. Yet it is a metaphor that people use all the time when they talk about the Web. "I built a Web site. This is my home page. I hope that people visit it." All architectural metaphors.

What are people doing when they build their Web sites? How does it work?

Ten years ago, the World Wide Web didn't exist. Now, it is huge. Why? Part of the reason is that the World Wide Web allows you to publish information. That is, it allows you to publish information.

So the question is not what are people doing with their Web sites, but what are you going to do with your Web site.

Anyone with a connection to the Internet can set up a Web site. People will give you free software, free Web space and free lessons in how to do it. There are free search engines to allow people to find your Web site, free services to help you maintain it and plenty of free advice on how to make it better.

So what are you going to write? What is your message?