Lost in Cyberspace? How to Find Yourself Again

First, the hairnet. Then, the fishnet. Now, the Internet. It's amazing how many ways a woman can use simple netting to support her ability to both work and be in style. What is cyberspace, and why should we go out there? What are women doing "online," and what does that mean for ourselves and our pocketbooks? Read on. I'm igniting Live Wire's take on that '90s journalistic clichŽ: the Internet story.

First, cyberspace: where is it? What do we do once we get there? Are there rest stops? The term loosely describes all of the information-electronic mail, bulletin boards and discussion groups, advertising-swirling around in the world's vast network of computers. Every day, information is taken for business or pleasure from computers-computers in offices, factories, governments, banks, brokerages, hospitals, schools and homes.

Cyberspace includes the Internet, a giant, worldwide charm bracelet of computers. The Internet's a great example of your tax dollars at work-really! The United States first developed this network of computers for defense. Scientists made sure that if one computer in the network was destroyed by, say, a bomb, the other computers would still work. The Internet has no one central computer; its decentralization has made it possible for research groups, government agencies, universities, businesses and more to attach their own computer networks to this Network of Networks. Today, the Internet functions as a high-speed global backbone for computer networks everywhere. And you can use it.

To get the most out of it, though, you oughta grasp some basic concepts. Herewith, the sum of all my knowledge. Digest it, and dazzle 'em at parties. Better yet, become the Internet expert in your office, winning instant respect and, I'd guess, incentive for a raise-because you'll soon find many productive uses for the Internet.

But enough of this crass materialism. Let's put on our lab coats. Scientists view computer networks as if they were a layer cake. Bottom layers are physical -- the computers that store all the information, plus the criss-crossing collection of cables, phone lines, satellite and radio networks, and more that connect computers to one another and us to the computers. Upper layers include the instructions that let computers share information and help us to make sense out of it, plus all the information itself.

Cyberspace is the top layer, the frosting on the cake. We can't see it or touch it, except through what appears on our computer screens. Yet through cyberspace, we can send everything from mash notes to bank notes, from mailing lists to medical research, from family photos to the latest action flicks -- all because engineers "code" everything in digits. In other words, they translate information into the computer's simple language of ones and zeroes, rather than into the "analog" or wave forms that over the past century brought us everything from phones to audio and video cassettes. Digital coding is exact; its copies never erode-which is why your CDs sound so clear, time after time. It's also why counterfeiters are finding new ways to thwart the U.S. Treasury. And why tabloids have better ways to show Brad Pitt's head on Demi Moore's body.

But what does this have to do with cyberspace? As it turns out, everything. "Digitizing" information lets us use it, manipulate it, and above all, share it in ways not possible even 10 years ago. And what does that have to do with you? Again, everything, because information-not goods, not even cash-is the world's new currency.

Just look at how you bank: if you came of age with a passbook, only to acquire a checkbook, only to handle an ATM, only to get a debit card, only to start paying bills online, then your fiscal habits have entered the information age. With each step, you've traded what used to pass for gold and silver, for paper, and then for plastic, and now for ones and zeroes streaming through your phone line. Money isn't money, as much as it is information representing something of value.

And so it goes in cyberspace, where information is passed around like so many wrinkled dollar bills. Why should we go out there? Our individual reasons are as diverse as women themselves: some of us need it to work, some of us need it to study. Some of us want to send cheap electronic mail to our far-flung friends and families. Some of us pursue hobbies, researching everything from stocks to genealogy. If you look at the world in terms of information and transactions-and many brainy people do-you'll find both of these aspects of life moving quickly into cyberspace.

It's a perfect medium for women. Not only does it offer instant connection and widespread communication-things women almost intuitively master, but it also erases the physical sex differences that have kept the guys from seeing us as we really are. If we couldn't hunt, or plow the fields, or haul engines as well as men, we now have-for the first time in history-a level playing field.

How we play the game -- now, that's up to us.