May 1996, Vol. 2, No. 3

The World Wide Web
By Rob Tell, second-year student in the clinical concentration.

"That's it?" is the typical response when I show someone the World Wide Web for the first time. As they look over my shoulder, all excited to catch a glimpse of the Information Superhighway, they expect to see evidence of an incredible convergence of information, technology, and art that is the beginning of a new world order, but instead they find themselves looking at a student's dog in Ohio. The web can be rather anticlimactic. When you hear about the web it sounds like the ultimate reference tool where you can look up any fact and get all the latest news, and it's true you can. If you know where to look.

The web is completely disorganized. Eventually, you will find the information that you want, but before you do you will have to read boring and tedious descriptions of people you don't really care about. Of course, that's after waiting a couple of minutes for a very large picture to download. The problem with the web is that anyone can create a page that's accessible to millions with about as much effort as it's taking me to write this essay. Any idiot has an instant platform to inflict their particular twisted view of reality on the rest of us. This is the web's problem, but it is also it's strength. Whatever my passion or cause, I can create a page that is accessible to an incredible number of people. The web is the digital age printing press. Just as Thomas Paine provoked the colonies with Common Sense, an individual can provoke those accessing the web with their own digital manifesto.

The web has the potential to be a great equalizer. Some large corporations have put together really impressive web sites. Time Warner has a site that will tell you how your representatives in Congress have voted and you can read almost all of The Chicago Tribune online. However, there are equally as impressive sites that have been put together by individuals or small groups such as David Baldwin's Trauma info pages or Lawrence Gilbert's Web Voyeur a collection of cameras that broadcast on the web. As you wander the web, it's not always apparent whether a particular page has been put together by a large corporation or an individual. In fact, the web is really driven by individuals. Companies are scrambling to set up web pages while individuals all over the world have well-established pages that incorporate all of the latest features. For the first time individuals can present their views on equal footing with large corporations.

Thus, the web is both an opportunity and a responsibility for social workers. It's a new tool to advocate and educate. It's also a new arena where many voices are left unheard. Not only should social workers utilize the web to improve their work, but they should also take care to speak for those who don't have access to the web. The Internet may well be the beginning of a new world order, and it is social work's obligation to make sure that it becomes even more inclusive. So, the next time you wander the web and think, "That's it?" think instead "That's It!"

Then as you sit back and take the time to relish your newfound membership in this global community of Upton Sinclairs and Harriet Beecher Stowes feel free to stop by my own little corner of cyberspace a href="http:// http.bsd.uchicago.edu/~r-tell. I can't offer you a picture of a dog, but if you look hard enough you'll find what I think is a darn nice picture of a cat.

Rob Tell is a second-year student in the clinical concentration.
His field placement is at University of Chicago Hospitals, Adult Out-Patient.

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