WebTV

[Andrew Wohrley, Science & Technology Referen]

Well, let this be a lesson to me about posting without actually 
trying the hardware!  Actually, I heard from a friend about WebTV and 
William Safire described getting WebTV as a gift recently. (He was 
underwhelmed reading his own columns on TV.)

I promise I will go to a department store soon and report what I 
think about my experience.

But...

I think that a slew of newbies is exactly what the Internet needs.  
Yes, they will be uninformed as to the ins and outs of netiquette, 
but I think even AOLusers are getting so that they are learning.  
I think we can all agree that information access is inherently good, 
and more is better.

Yes, I'm sure that the first generation WebTV is a clunky kluge, but 
name any consumer electronic device that wasn't it was first 
introduced.

Finally, you don't have to convince me that 33K modems are too slow, 
but I'm convinced that experience shows that technology catches up to 
need and faster bandwidth at reasonable prices will come to the home. 
Soon.

I believe it is inherently a good thing that information technology 
becomes a commodity item and not a premium service.   I think that 
WebTV is the first step towards the fusion of all consumer 
telecommunications into one device.  I guess if we have any 
disagreements here they are over matters of taste, not substance.  
The good criticisms posted are ones that point out what a bad PC or 
web browser WebTV is.  My point is that WebTV just might be a pretty 
good WebTV.

Andrew Wohrley


Andrew Wohrley
Science & Technology Department
Auburn University Libraries
http://www.auburn.edu/~wohrlaj
wohrlaj at lib.auburn.edu