Q: We start off with a fellow by the name of Ralph Abraham, who is the author of a book called The Web Empowerment Book. He's one of the co-authors of this book, and he's on the line with us right now. Hi Ralph, how are ya?

RA: Hi, I'm here. 

Q: Nice to talk to you this evening.

RA: Yeah, likewise. Greetings from California.

Q: There are a lot of books out there talking about the Web.

RA: There are, yeah.

Q: And so we'll give you an opportunity to tell us right now, what makes yours stand out?

RA: Well, I haven't looked at all the other ones, but our book is aimed specifically on helping people get onto the Worldwide Web who've already heard about it from listening to your show or something and want to actually get there, and there are certain technical problems. I'm sure every month it will get easier. But in case you try and you're frustrated, our book gives the recipe to empower people who have a computer and a modem to get connected to the Worldwide Web and find out what's happening there.

Q: Now according to your book, you say there are five levels of Internet citizenship.

RA: Yeah, well that's one way that I've used to try to explain to people that it's not all the same thing out there. Compuserve is one thing, and the Internet is another, and the Worldwide Web is still another, for browsing, and then there's still another level if you operate a publication site, a serving site on the Worldwide Web. So the numbers and the gradations are not all that crucial. But it's helpful to understand the step-by-step that you have to go through to get there. Sort of a natural learning process.

Q: People are a little leery. They think it's difficult to learn. You, according to your book, say it's easy to learn to navigate the Internet and to find what you want.

RA: Yes! Well it's fantastically easy once you're connected. The whole problem is to get connected. Now some people are lucky, like me. I'm a professor at a university. They connected me. So I didn't have to be smart or anything. I just found this gadget there. You click here and there and then you find out everything.

Q: Now, I've often used the analogy that going onto the Internet is like going into your parents' place to look for something you left behind in the attic. You go up there looking for it, and you spend all day searching. You might not find it but you find a lot of other neat stuff.
RA: That's really exactly accurate.

Q: How do you go about finding, though, what you're looking for?

RA: Well, there's search engines that are too good. They're too good. For example, if you want to check the surf conditions in California, you type in the word "surf" and then you click the button that says "search," and then it will deliver you a list of about 635 places where you can look for information about surfing. So the index is almost too good. And you can find things that way. But usually you find things by guessing, like you would in your folks' attic.

Q: Is it really the search tools that are so difficult to use? 

RA: No.

Q: It's more of an art to do a keyword search, isn't it?

RA: Well, I think you kind of get used to it, but mostly, in my work, I get clues from people. You know, like I was just listening to you guys and I found out that OK, Playboy is on the Worldwide Web. Well I could guess their address. I bet I could find them without even searching. So searching is easy. I think the hardest thing is to just get connected. And to get things working, like be able to place down files and all that multimedia stuff. It is a bit complex. So our book explains what are the standard file types, what are the players and displayers you can get for free on the Internet, how to set them up, and stuff like that. Getting started.

Q: Is it a book that you have to read completely first, and then go on to the Net, or can you read along as you explore?

RA: Yeah. It's got an exploratory section at the beginning, where it tries to show you in case you haven't seen it yet what it looks like there. My idea is anybody who gets a glimmer of what's going on, they will get really excited and want to check it out. And after that we tell how to get software and hook it up so that you can get there easily any time you want to go.

Q: You mentioned you were a professor of mathematics at the University of California in Santa Cruz. You say when your school first went on line, were you in any way, shape or form intimidated by this Internet?

RA: I can't say I was. I started about 15 years ago. I was connected to the Internet. We only did Email for the first few months. Then time went by. Then we learned that there was a tool called STP that you could get files and it was just a very gradual thing. And of course in a university you're surrounded by bright students who already know how to do stuff, and they help you. It's a kind of a learning community.

Q: Did you feel back then, 15 years ago, that we'd all be talking about the Internet the way we're talking about it now?

RA: No. No. Never crossed my mind until just a couple years ago I found out about the educational opportunities on the Worldwide Web, and I realized that my dream would come true of being able to present my material--mathematics, the history of mathematics, Chaos Theory and so on--present it to the world in an understandable manner using little animated sequences and so on. And for mathematics, the Worldwide Web is a fantastic opportunity to go public for the first time in history. So it's tremendously exciting from the educational perspective. 

Q: The problem with putting out a book like this, though, your book entitled The Web Empowerment Book, is that things are changing so fast on the Internet. How is one going to be able to keep up? How do you avoid having your book outdated virtually the minute it comes out?

RA: Well, I think it's just like a guidebook to Rome or something. It needs a separate edition every year. And there's no way that we can have a long--you know, it wasn't a big profit thing. My motive was to help people get connected. And if we could get started right on the Worldwide Web, with the right kind of people as it were migrating into a new world, then it would create a completely different future than if on the other hand only businesses and cranks and so on got there first. So my whole motive was kind of a flash, temporary thing. I wanted to affect the world in 1995.

Q: Now is your book oriented more towards the business user or the home user?

RA: The home user, yeah. The business user can hire somebody to come and connect them up.

Q: That would be you, Evan. [laughter]

RA: This book is for do-it-yourselfers who don't want to pay several hundred dollars to get connected. And even if you have a slow mode, it's still thrilling out there. Even without graphics, without sounds and without movies, just the hypertext aspect of the Worldwide Web alone is well worth going out and exploring. It's just fantastic.

Q: We should the fact that at the back of your book there's a registration card that will enable people to get updates, is that correct?

RA: Yeah. Well, to find our software, we keep the software updated that's available on the Internet that you can help your friend get connected with this software.

Q: So in addition to the book there is software one can use?

RA: Yeah. We have free software. It's available at an STP site. The book explains exactly how to get it, which is, it's not that directly easy, because you need to be connected to get the software, but you need the software in order to get connected. Kind of a catch 22. And our book provides the key to go and unlock that catch 22 and actually get going for nothing.

Q: I tend to like to have a book in my hand, but there are more and more people who like to download books. Is your book available for download?

RA: No, it's not. It's pretty tedious downloading books, especially when they have a lot of graphics. We have hundreds of graphics, and it's about 50 megabytes. We delivered the book electronically to the publisher over the Internet. We used Framemaker to put the book together. So it was about 50 megabytes, the entire book with the graphics and the indices and so on. So that's a bit much. It would take all day long to send that over the Internet. But we do have excerpts from the book and specific instructions to use the software and stuff like that.

Q: I'm thumbing through the book and I don't see a price on it.

RA: The price is somewhere around $25--$24.95 or something like that.

Q: So it would be closer to $20 Canadian. Is there a number they can call or is it available in bookstores or--?

RA: It's available in bookstores. The publisher is Springer-Verlog in New York, which is a very large publisher. And actually they have a Worldwide Web site where you can order the book. That won't be of interest, of course, to our customers who aren't on the Worldwide Web yet. So let me recommend the bookstore.

Q: Thanks for talking with us Ralph.

RA: Thank you! Thanks a million!