head-to-head in che Windows/i marketplace, in which the core virtues of the Macintosh were increasingly obscured. Work on a evolutionary” new Mac operating sytem dragged on endlesly; meanwhile Macintosh computers were promoted a being capable ‘of running the Windows operating system under emulation, The clisinction betwen the two was becoming petlousy indistinct to sll bur the most knowledgeable users, and yet Macs remained rla- tively expensive. By 1997, Apple was ficing the dangerous prospect, ‘of sadly shrinking marker share combined with a lose of market identi In desperation, the company asked Steve Jobs to return to the Ine, (He had been squeezed out in che erly years of expansion in ' boutd:oom pursch, & noc uncommon fate among the industry's founding geniuses) In one ofthe more remarkable business achieve ments of the decade, within a year ofhis erur Jobs had put Apple firmly back on che rails, principally by eefocusing its eff traditional areas of strength: elegant operating systems, intuitive software, brillant hardware design within a limited product ine, nd technical superior. To thie list he was able ro add for che ist rim, strongly competitive pricing, With the Internet and World ‘Wide Weh markets extending Macintohs acknowledged superior- igyas communications and publishing platform into the vase new world of online interactivity, the company’s prospects seemed once aes secure Pethaps more than any other single even, the introduction of the Macintosh had helped ro larity the furrediection of personal ‘computing, had helped to make clear the possibilities latent in the phenomenon ofcomputing power widely distributed among the _general populace. The Mac hd been designed tobe used a a com rumnicaions tool and i was eagerly adopted as such, While ie did pootly in the mainstream business market, t was mapped up by ‘veces, arests, musicians, educators architects, designers, math~ cmaticians—creative people in general and communicarors in particular The Personal Computer as The phenomenon of desktop publishing was a case in point. ‘With es strong buil-in graphics capabilities the Macintosh quickly bbecame the cornerstone ofa new cottage industry in which it was porsbleso publish vireuallyanything, from newspapers tohandbils 10 books, at relatively lowcost. Text and images could be prepared, edited and even typeset onthe computer. With the introduction of| ‘the laser printer, high-quality printing roo became a desktop oper~ ation, Every aspect ofthe eaditional publishing industry had been made accesible, except the mechanisms of distribution, which remained largely in the hands of bookstore chains and thie buyers and periodical distributors. With the advent af the World Wide Web in the mid-t99or, this final hurdle vo personal publishing would be overcome as well, giving any individual wih 2 compucer anda modem, in principle at least, access to the communications power ofa newspaper editor or network television producer. The democratic revalution in textual communication, launched but only partly realized by the printing pres, was taken a giant step close fruition by the personal computer ‘What was tue of publishing was also true in the feds of music production, sound editing and che graphic arts, and, eventually, ‘deo editing and production. In each case, the personal computer dramatically exended access 10 the field by drastically reducing both capital costs and the cost of materials. la elevision, for example, ligheweighe digital cameras costing tiny fraction ofthe price of standaed professional video camera, matched with low-cost desk top editing software, made ic feasible for the eelancer wo enter the field ofrv news and documentary production. Uni the computer chip made thee products available, extremely high equipment and ‘operating costs had maintained this a8 an exclusive preserve of the corporate media businesses and the networks. As with deskeop pub- lishing, however distribution remained a problem for frelance video producers; traditional elevision news and current firs oper- ations have historically been loath ro accept ouside contributions for reasons related mainly to profesional pide, union contracts,consintency of syle and legal abilig. And of ours setting up one’s ‘wn 7 tation was out ofthe question for al but the very wealth «xt inthe communi The World Wide Web, once gun, as begun to offer accesible, lawcos altematves for diseibuion, and thie wil pelfrateasIneenerbandwideh and high-spced access expand As television and computer merge through technologies such the tm and high-definition digital rv formats, an er of “personal nce upon us, not justin the sense of personal appliances sich ‘the To and BlackBerry, butin he sense of smal scale produce ‘ono conten inal ies forms. Teas with the advent ofthe computer network, then, thatthe personal computer ultimate destiny asa powerful communications spplance began vo ryt. Like the telephone before it, the p= sonal computer had een thought to be essentially busines ool che Masinosh computer tl was dismissed by business toy, jue as Bell's leone ad been dismissed century crlierby the presidenc of Wester Union sa "scientific toy" noe worth tious development, and ceraialy aoe worth purchasing the rghts 0 manubieure Tod's personal computers are vastly more powerful and ler-of-magnigude fister than che ealy prototypes ofthe bred, Atypical laptop of today boasts more computing horsepower than ‘vas available ro the entire U.S, defence establishment athe height ofthe pret ar defence panic of the 1950s. And tha power is being uplifed enormously, and with unknown consequences, asthe ‘worlds computers are linked in their tens of millions on the world wide newark tha ie the Interne. So is to the Internet chat we 27 A Digital Mardi Gras bin, a tater invented so mich asimagined. leas not built just grew, asifinstructed by some deeply embedded coding Irisnotso such che product of individual minds as the realization ofthe col Ietiv vision feral groups of men and women, mainly academ-- iesand computer enthusiasts al over the word: Ievas born ico the deeply pychotc word of Cold War nuclear gamesmanship ye teanscended ie magnificent, Ke sites human needs and aspire tions playfulness genius, creativity and depravity beter than any other technology ever devised, A visor from another galaxy oul earn great dal about huranigy from the IterngtpScence feion writer Bruce Scling td ofthe Nein a wonderful image: T tue nvrenner is cechnology without precedent Iewas oc} [No one relly planned it his way Is users made the Intenet that way, Because they had the courage to use the network 10 support their own values, o bend the technology to their own purposes To serve their own liber Their own convenience, ther own amusement, even their own ile pleasure. When Took atthe Internet .. . 1 see something astounding and delightful es 2 if some grim fallout shelter had burst open and: fullscale Mandi Gras parade had come out"