And Now We Have

Net Visitation Rights

Via small, almost imperceptible steps, the Internet burrows into the fabric of today’s society. For example, in early January, a state of appeals court in Trenton, New Jersey, allowed a divorced woman to move her daughter to California and allow the girl’s father to keep in touch via a Web site video connection. This ruling appears to be the first of its kind in the United States to involve Internet visitation. The three-judge panel, according to an AP article posted on the Wirednews.com Web site, stated the Internet would provide a “creative and innovative” way for the father and daughter to keep in touch.

Frankly, some readers of this column might question the credulity and wisdom of the court’s ruling. For those people who have not used the combination of an inexpensive (under $100) Web camera and Microsoft Netmeeting software (free with Windows operating systems), this is understandable. However, with the ever increasing availability of broadband access (Internet cable or xDSL), transmitting clear two-way pictures accompanied with near telephone quality voice transmissions results in a satisfactory experience. This ruling, as it spreads across the country, could have far-reaching implications when it comes to the family structure when a marriage with children dissolves.

A Troubling Trend?

According to the Wired article, Mr David Levy, president of the Children’s Rights Council, expressed concern about this ruling. He is quoted: “It’s totally unacceptable. The parent did not give birth to an Internet baby.” Nevertheless, depending on where one weighs in on this issue, the Internet provides a dramatic improvement in person to person communication on an intimate level.

Many of us remember the hyped promises of video-phone (VP) from AT&T. Well, VP never panned out (high costs killed it) but the video cam/Internet/Netmeeting combination surpasses the early demonstrations witnessed in the 1960s. Moving forward to today, with miniaturization of cameras and the advent of highly networked public/private buildings (court houses, hospitals, sports complexes, airports, and other facilities) we will witness more and more live images.

The owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, during a recent interview on Jeff Greenfield’s PBS television show CEO Exchange, described how handheld devices will allow spectators at sports events to meet strangers across the expanse of the arena. Using addresses of the seating arrangement, through the power of IP (Internet Protocol), new relationships could flourish as images are pulled up from admission databases. Interesting. However, the dark side is the loss of privacy in public places, which erodes one small layer at a time.

In The Dorm

Many parents arm their college-bound scholars with state-of-the-art computers often required by higher education. In recent memory, we heard about network congestion resulting from massive downloading of MP3 files (music) with Napster in college dorms. Campus networks, overwhelmed with packet flow to and from the Internet backbone, slowed to a crawl. College network administrators, adjusting to the demands, have retaken control of the networks.

With the availability of low cost cams, mom can contact Joe/Jane College, look them right in the eye as they peer into the video cam and ask the age old question, “You look a little green around the eyes, dear. Are you eating okay, dear?” This generates the patented response: “Well, the food in the cafeteria is not that great. If I can have a few extra bucks, I could get a good meal off campus.” (Translation: I need beer money!) Again, the Internet has preserved the family structure by assuring mom that all is well.

More and more the Internet invades our lives ever so slowly. E-mail, voice, pictures – as Mark Cuban said to the audience, “It is all bits.” These bits are now everywhere.

Cable Being Upgraded

As a follow-up, I have been seeing spikes in the amount of data arriving across the Internet from my I-Cable provider, Charter Communications. The upgrading to 512kbps appears underway. I will keep you updated on this matter.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.wirednews.com/news/politics/0,1283,41033,00.html

http://prairielaw.com/articles/chnl18/artcl1146.asp

http://www.pbs.org/wttw/ceoexchange/series/greenfield.html

(This is the 242nd of a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the Internet.  Next, “My Egghead Dilemma” is the subject on tap.  Stay Tuned.  Until next week, happy travels through cyberspace.  Previous issues of  Internet Info for Real People can be found: http://www.thebee.com.  Please e-mail comments and suggestions: rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)