|
Independent Journalists on the Web
In a cross between "The Killing Fields" and "24 hours in Cyberspace", three Brits are currently in recovering Bosnia installing their first Internet server. They are publishing their day to day experiences on the World Wide Web direct from the War Zone itself. None of these guys have been to the country since Civil War broke out, and the diary of Adam Laurie is making interesting reading for not only his family and colleagues but also the rest of the Internet community.
![]() In their current location, there is no telephone service available to the rest of Europe and the first news his family, friends and work colleagues heard since he left, was when he updated his diary on a specially set up World Wide Web Site. Rather than sending a postcard that takes six weeks to deliver or bringing back his diary at the end of the trip, Adam, in conjunction with A.L.Digital Ltd a small technology company in Chiswick, West London has set up a World Wide Web Site to relate these experiences daily. He has also taken with him a digital camera allowing him to take photographs which he can then simply upload onto his computer. So, the full story with words and pictures can be published on the World Wide Web without delay. At the end of every day, Adam downloads the photographs from his digital camera and then uses his lap-top PC to write a World Wide Web Page in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). This is now ready for publishing. Adam then uses his Internet connection to access a computer in his office which is the World Wide Web Server connected to the Internet. Using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) he can put these pages onto the server so that they can be accessed by the rest of the world. Watching the progress, problems, fears, pitfalls and even comedy that they experience on a day-to-day basis is fascinating. Adam has no military or journalistic training or experience, and so his experiences are fresh and give a very new perspective on what is going on.
http://www.wibblywobblyweb.com/ Background: Adam is in Bosnia on behalf of a charitable aid organisation called I-Hac. One of I-Hac's aims is bringing technology to developing and troubled regions of the world. So, Adam Laurie, Howard Jones and Tim Jones are currently in Bosnia Setting up a World Wide Web Server and Internet Access for people in the region. Initially, the server will be for the benefit of the academic community and the many aid and health workers in the region. They hope however to expand that into providing Internet access for many more people and businesses in the region. Using equipment begged and borrowed from the likes of Silicon Graphics, A.L.Digital Ltd and Deutsche Telekom they have braved the still perilous country to spend a week setting up this service. Deutsche Telekom have installed a 64K leased ISDN line that is connected to the Internet. One of their previous attempts sadly made the news after their technician went missing after using an out of date map. To our knowledge, he has still not been found. Silicon Graphics have provided an Indigo computer and some software that will be the World Wide Web Server itself. Adam Laurie is a Director and Tim Jones is an employee of A.L.Digital Ltd. They are providing the technical know-how and software skills needed to set up the server and hook up Bosnia to the Internet free of charge.
Contact Information: Paul Dawson Email: paul@aldigital.algroup.co.uk or Dominic Hawken Email: dominic@aldigital.algroup.co.uk at A.L.Digital Ltd : Tel: +44 (181) 742 0755 Fax: +44 (181) 994 4959 |