The Very World Wide Web

When I moved to Seattle from San Francisco in 2002, the web phenomena was flourishing but not as universal and…well, normal, as it is today. There was some resistance to the digitized web-connectedness, primarily in the older generation. Web designs were simpler; animations were clunky and rare. An overwhelming amount of text filled web pages.

Most people were reluctant to purchase products online. I worked for a furniture company where a majority of orders was placed through the catalog and a fraction of orders came from the ecommerce site; nowadays it’s more common for people to shop online. The current company I work for in Seattle is a predominantly web-based business.

The other day, I was on the bus and I heard a woman of about 55 talking on her cell phone. She wore a fluffy sweater with a kitten embroidered on it and carried the kind of purse that could fit a couple of Costco lasagna pans and a generator just in case her cell phone juice ran out. She was chatting with someone obviously less technically adept than herself:

“Yes, that’s right, Jimmy got me an ipod for Christmas…no, not a tripod, ipod…well, it’s this thingamajingie that you upload songs from…no, it’s like a small computer that you can store MPsomethings – you know those walkman things? Kind of like that…yes, it’s very nice…I was able to find some Garth Brooks songs…yeah, yeah…what?...no, auntie, it’s not a digital camera…”

What struck me was how comfortable she was with the concept of an ipod even if she didn’t get the terminology quite right. Other observations: when I go to the library and glance over at the computer section, I am amazed at the number of senior citizens and homeless folks expertly clicking their way through various web pages and even critiquing the user interface designs. My boyfriend’s grandmother learned how to pay her bills online at the age of 86. My own mother whose English is broken and heavily accented can pronounce “download” flawlessly. The web is here to stay.

I’m told that web designers are a dime a dozen, and I enjoyed this piece analogizing web work with [migrant] farming (click here for the archive ):

7.6.00

We're on press deadline and our Web production editor just sent this out.

Subject: What I tell people I do.
"I'm but a serf in the corporate feudal system. I toil in a cube farm, tending to several Web sites. But my life is not without joy. During the day my fellow cube dwellers may take a break from the glaring fluorescent lights over us and the CRTs in front of us, and someone may pull out a tinwhistle or an MP3 player and break into a little tune. We may smile a little and, if for a moment, forget our carpal tunnel aches. Today is an especially busy time, so the lords may add a handful of hay to our beds or a couple more potatoes to the Indian curry we've ordered online. The weekend allows little reprieve as at the end of the day I will strap the trusty laptop to my back and continue to wipe the sweat from my brow tomorrow and the next day. We are but simple folk and hopefully one day I will have accrued enough in my 401K to free myself from these chains."
11:20 a.m.

- from mightygirl.com

With continually improving software functionalities, it gets easier and easier to create and design web pages. Especially in a city like Seattle, competition for web design work is stiff. Still, it’s exciting to be part of this developing, burgeoning, exploding world. I’m ready to toil.