Michael, Thank you for writing this.
I cannot agree with you more. This was very well written. When I read this, I remembered a website that was dependent on flash meant to deliver education in a developing country where many students would be accessing with older computers for limited times. Better that they could download information they need than watch fancy pictures that were very slow to load for them. However, this applies widely even in the developed world. I work as a volunteer in a sports organization to support the participation of my children. One of the issues that comes up constantly is that parents want simple information access, not fancy pictures when they try to get information about the competitions. I know that my own kids are pictured out (and were a long time before the internet was so ubiquitous) and now want hard copy versions of the Economist, for example, instead of working through what it takes to read the articles online. Midi Michael caused electrons to hula in cyberspace with: >A lot of things are leaving them behind. Even websites for some of the >very agencies they depend upon are barely accessible by them thanks to >the demise of Gopher, Telnet bulletin board systems, and more. The ONE >thing they have always and should be able to count on for communication >is email. Email is pure communication, and it should be pure text with as >little formatting as possible, so that anyone anywhere can talk to anyone >else anywhere and get the vital information they need. Scientists in >various parts of the world should not have to be cut off from their >counterparts in the wonderful U.S., U.K. or wherever, because of the >whims of Bill Gates and our apparent desire to want everything pretty.
