On the Road With Cybergrrl...

b o o k

d i a r y

v o i c e s

a u t h o r

h o m e

Digital Camera
from Olympus

Cybergrrl^®:
A Woman's Guide
to the World Wide Web

v o i c e s

Start at the Beginning

Take a chronological look at the first Cybergrrl booktour and what women across the country think about the Internet.

Have tape recorder, digital camera (from Olympus) and laptop with modem. What else does a grrl need?

Stardate 021998, Cybergrrl's Log: San Francisco, CA

Naomi Epel, media escort and writer

Naomi was driving me around the interviews so I thought I'd interview her. I asked her what she was planning to do when she got online (she has been trying to get online but her computer is missing a piece of software and she is going through a lot of hassles with her new Internet Service Provider so she isn't connected yet).

"Probably email. Looking at sites around writing, looking to see what's out there."

I asked her what are her impressions about the Internet.

"That it's over hyped. That's a tool for connecting faster. But when I've tried to do research online, I get mostly garbage. I'd rather go to the library than try to look up something online because there's just a lot of junk and I haven't been able to come up with really quality information when I do searches."

"I'm going to create a website because I've got a book coming out. The address will be observationdeck.com and it's about writing and I wanted to be able to connect people up together who want to do groups to help each other become better writers."

"It's the wave of the future. You can't do anything to avoid it. And everyone's always bugging me that I'm not online. I don't want to have to be writing messages to people. I have enough trouble trying to keep up with my phone calls. I don't think it's going to make my life any easier having email because there's so many phone calls I have to make and I don't have time to be communicating with other people. But I hope I'll be able to answer all my fan mail online."

Shu Katahira, producer and host of a radio program on women's issue and a pre-medical student and coordinator for the campus resource center

Shu Katahira, producer and host of a radio program on women's issue and a pre-medical student and coordinator for the campus resource center

After Shu interviewed me for her radio show, I turned on my tape recorder and interviewed her. I asked her first what she thinks about the Internet.

"I enjoy it. I bought a computer about a year and a half ago and I got because I wanted to be online, on the Internet. And every night I think I spend two hours looking through whatever. Most of the time it's email - friends and family."

"The last (website) I looked for was one friend of mine is getting married and she's having a wedding in Hawaii. So I looked up the website for a bed and breakfast in Hawaii."

What would Shu say to women to get them interested in the Internet?

"First of all, there is so much information on the Internet. And also you get to know people, too - it's a great way to know people. Information, people. There's a lot of fun, a lot of different websites, some jokes and little stories that I really love."

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