High speed internet is not available to everyone – forget the commercials that cover the airwaves. Living in a rural community can make it impossible to enter into the world that exists on the internet today. Dialup may be the only way to surf the web and that means missing out on many of the downloads and websites around the Web.

When AT&T bought out Bellsouth, they agreed to have high speed internet service available to everyone in their service range by the end of the year. That was 2007. By December of 2007, we realized that getting AT&T high speed was a dream (or delusion).

Satellite was not a top choice. Or location keeps us from always getting a good signal for our television and that’s not something to be easily dealt with over the internet, particularly when you are in the middle of working online. Besides, the two satellite companies that serviced the area wanted a small fortune to install and then another small fortune each month.

Cable was the ideal solution. It offered the fastest speeds around and there was no limit to access or connections. Only the cable company claimed our location was unserviceable. For just a few thousand dollars they would be glad to MAKE us serviceable.

After being disappointed by the unfulfilled promises of AT&T and after too many hours waiting for dialup to download, we bit the bullet. We paid the ransom to get the high speed – let’s just see if it’s really worth all the hype and trouble.

Web 2.0 is becoming the end all and be all of the internet.  Websites want to be the best in the social networking world.  It’s really exciting when you find out that your little site has won a prestigious award.  It is not so exciting if you discover that everyone and your grandmother also got the same award.  It’s the internet equivalent of a participation trophy.

Is there any real way to tell if your site is among the best?  I know of people that are making money from websites that could be written by my eight year old (who hates to write).  At the same time, there are sites out there that are generating plenty of traffic and putting out quality material and aren’t making a dime.  Clearly, money is not the clear answer as to whether or not your site is a good one.

If knowing who is on top is not a matter of money or awards, then it must be a matter of personal perception.  If you want to get a lot of traffic and you are then you are tops in your own eyes.  If you want to be one of the folks the news stations call, and they do, then that is a sign you are tops in that area.

Awards are great, but they are not the only way to judge a website.

The internet is becoming a more acceptable form of communication for many in the baby boom generation.  These less than tech savvy surfers are trying to negotiate their way through forums, chat room, websites, and blogs.  With the expansion of Web 2.0, the field is becoming even more dangerous.  Many of the new users end up abusing their own sites, often without ever coming to realize it.

Recently, my SIL set up a website so that friends and family from around the world would be able to get updated information about her small children and about my brother (who has recently started back to med school).  The interesting thing was listening to my parents discuss how her site worked.  My dad insisted it was a blog.  My mother insisted it wasn’t.  Neither of them would really know a blog if it bit them in the rear end. 

It’s easy to get lost in all the technical jargon that comes with the internet territory.  Instead of avoiding the technology or finding out too late that you are using it all wrong, just take your time.  There are classes at almost all community colleges or universities that will walk you through the basics of the internet.  Once you get the basics down, you’ll find that there are online classes available to help you expand your world.

The social community of web 2.0 has its fingers in every aspect of life.  Blogs, Myspace, Facebook, and other applications are making the world a community of neighbors.  It’s affecting everything from how you do your taxes or cook your dinners to how you vote in elections.

The democrats pushed the revolution to a new level (good or bad is still up for debate) when they choose to do a live debate on YouTube.  The republicans declined to offer to follow suit.  But all the candidates have seemed to embrace the internet with blogs, websites, and other uses of the medium.

MySpace has pages for all the candidates and it is set to have the candidates do live interviews in the next few weeks.  This is a push to get the youth involved in the election, but will have other repercussions as well.

The internet could be the catalyst for grassroots efforts to take over the nominations.  Online communications make the process seem more intimate and tend to encourage people to have a more personal stake in the outcome.

It is a fine line between trying to pull new voters into the process through the use of new and unusual means and crossing over to situations that demean the very position that it is trying to promote.  Candidates need to use the internet with discretion and dignity.

It is more likely that a child will be struck by lightening than abducted by a stranger, but parents still worry about the safety of their kids.  The internet has made it impossible to keep kids away from strangers.  Many of the Web 2.0 communities give the kids using the sites a false sense of security.  It also allows those same kids to keep what they are doing out of the hands of nosey parents.

Until now.

Myspace has announced that it will offer software that will give parents the ability to monitor portions of their children’s online activities - at least on the home computer.  It won’t give parents the ability to spy (read emails or profiles) but it will allow them to know what age, description, and location the child is advertising.

Does it really go far enough?  Most experts would say no.  The idea that kids can block their parents from accessing anything of theirs is wrong.  If kids want that kind of freedom they need to get jobs, move out of their parents’ homes, and fend for themselves.

Myspace is trying to find a way to appease the parents and still keep the business of the kids.  This software is just not the best way to make either side all that happy.

Web 2.0 is much more than just the catch phrase of the day.  You only have to peruse the internet for a short time to see that the social networks (the very heart of Web 2.0) are taking over.   YouTube is already one of the hottest Web 2.0 sites.  It is now making it easier to connect with other Web 2.0 networks.

YouTube has announced that it will be adding a button to allow users to Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and basically mark the entries so that it is easy to post them at other social content sites.   The “Digg this” button is probably one of the most exciting features.  Digg.com has a strong hold on Web 2.0 in its own right.

While it’s good that the different sites are making it easier to connect to other social networks, I’m not so sure it’s all good.  My last major tour through Digg provided me with hours of pointless, worthless, and mindless information.  I actually WANT more than entertainment out of my computer.

Like anything that is good, people have a way of making it bad.  It would be nice if you had to get a license (or in some way proof your value) before being allowed to surf the Web.