I started using the Internet back in 1995. Back then most of what you saw on-line was text and images. GIF’s were very popular even for professional web sites. You also saw many “click here” links. Audio and video were possible but not popular at all since most if not all people had dial-up Internet connections.

The summer of that year I took a class on web designing. I was taught to hand code everything. I was so excited that I started building small sites on geocities web space and would get quite a few visits to them.I remember when even Yahoo! and Google were small.

A lot of people specially most of the new on-line generation have no idea of how the net works or even what it takes to build a site. My generation didn’t have MySpace or other services like it. We built our own sites from scratch and looked up code for cool effects. Chat rooms and guest-books were very popular as well.

Since then, the Internet has grown to be a gigantic virtual but very real world. Its like a world within our world. We now have Internet access faster that I could imagine possible or necessary, We have movies, video clips, music, e-books, and so much more. Something I like about the web as much as the web itself is open source software. Please check out my article on Associated Content about  open source software and open standards

I think the Internet is a great tool to communicate, buy, sell, have fun, share, create, build community, learn and explore. In essence the Internet is not private or centralized and I believe it should remain that way.

Since my first web designing class the summer school of 1995, I decided that this is what I wanted to do for a living. I kept exploring it on my own and eventually I took professional classes. In reality the classes just taught me about standards because everything else I picked up on my own. I also took other classes that taught me about computer systems and networks, operating systems and software. I also started focusing on graphic design and I enjoy every minute doing it.

I am currently studying computer science and I run my own business on-line. I guess its true what I was told as a kid; “Work in what you like and it will never seem like you are working”. I build websites, do graphic design, print products, and offer PC services. And just to think that it all started with the curiosity of taking a summer class that sounded interesting.