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SciTech Daily Review

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GIGO

World Wide Web Debut

What is it about bright ideas that they arrive in the wee hours of the morning? Peter got a brainwave at 3am and the following 48 hours were spent writing, editing and programming 23 pages for our debut on the World Wide Web.

Not only did we create pages covering the NZSM and the eclectic range of services that we offer, we also produced a spoof electronic newspaper complete with classifieds, competitions and cartoons as we explored different ways to offer information. It was a hectic weekend, but a satisfying one.

It's all part of the "neuronaissance" -- the explosion in information availability and novel ways of processing it with both brain and computer. As one who's always taken a Renaissance approach to learning (one Dean called my collection of undergraduate papers a "bastard miscellany"), I'm delighted by the possibilities for learning. I'm also cautious about the possibilities of information overload, but there's so much out there I want to see, know, understand....

I like the term "neuronaissance", with its images of a new birth of a different kind of knowledge, one that is broad-ranging and -- I hope -- worthwhile. One of the most delightful things about this new information format is how much fun is involved -- the best Web sites entertain as well as inform, and that entertainment aspect is often built upon the ability to provide links to other interesting sources of information.

We've had fun, for example, including our personal interests in our personnel pages, linking to things as diverse as medival recreation sites and the Blue Oyster Cult home page. Phil is tracking down a sloth page (his totem animal) and I'm figuring out how to pull harp music off the Web.

The thing that we need to ensure, as this new Renaissance sweeps through our global culture, is that it is open to all, not just to the technologically elite.

That elitism could have become entrenched, but as hardware becomes cheaper and more and more schools get Internet and Web access, a greater proportion of society will grow up understanding about the power of information and information sources, and about the joy of learning. If this makes them a more informed, thinking populace, then it will truly be a new Renaissance.

Vicki Hyde is the editor of New Zealand Science Monthly.