Good Morning, Mr President

Where do I go first? That’s the decision I have to take once I’ve enteredcyberspace, that abstract Tower of Babel where millions of Net-users across the worldmeet, discuss, learn, argue and date every day. Why not start at the top, at 1600Pennsylvania Avenue? I key in http://www.whitehouse.gov, and wait.

The arrival of new point and click software such as Netscape and Mosaic may have madethings easier for the Netraveller, but the narrow bandwidth available in India makesWebsurfing a mere splash in the puddle. It takes several minutes to download BillClinton’s welcome message to the White House. The President’s voice comes onlinein a monotonous soliloquy: "Welcome to the White House – our first onlinecitizen’s handbook. I hope you find this is a useful way to find answers to yourquestions, a better way to let me know what you think and a powerful way to findinformation you can use – whether you are in Nome, Alaska, or right down PennsylvaniaAvenue. Please don’t forget to sign the guest book and let us know what you think ofthis new service."

Boring. Statistics indicate that 50 per cent of all people who logon to the Web re insearch of erotica. Remember that old saying, that sex is all in the anticipation? ForIndian Netsurfers, that will stand true for dirty pictures on the Net. After you key in http://playboy.com (Playboy issues available for browsing),it takes 10 minutes for a model’s small-sized picture to come on screen. With the 64kbps bandwidth given to Maurya Sheraton, it would take about 30 minutes to download amovie clip and all of 48 hours for a full length feature film, soft or hard. What akillljoy! I abandon plans to check out Penthouse and Hustler.

I settle instead for a visual tour of Paramount Studios and watch snapshots of theworldwide premiere of the movie Congo and take a quick look at other films that Paramountis offering. I then decide to get serious, hooking on to America On-line and its globalsearch facility. I glimpse the menu on the New York Times Information Services Group, theNYT Business information services, look at the prices on the New York Stock Exchange andglance at court records of the OJ Simpson case.

I move on to sift through mounds of data: Hot Topics at Microsoft, What’s New atIntel, Today at NASA, the NASA Space Calendar, All About Aids, Inspiring Stories of PeopleLiving with Aids. I look at the courses Harvard and Oxford are offering this term. SachinMehra, managing director of tNet, the system integrators for the hotel’s Internetservices, offered free to residents, says he wants to locate a friend studying at a USuniversity. He finds him. Is it possible to have a video conferencing internationally, youneed a bandwidth of at least 128 kbps, though the ideal would be upwards of 256 kbps. And,feels, Mehra, for "decent" international access, you need at least 512 kbpsbandwidth.

The government says a high-speed, high-capacity external gateway to the Web should bein place soon. If this is delayed for too long, it can only put off prospective Net-users.