connected with literacy in Ireland.
I would miss reading and reading from a screen is too burdensome to the eyes.

= What do you think about e-books?

I don't think that they have the right appeal for lovers of books. The Internet
is great for information. Books are not information. People that love books have
a relationship with their books. They reread them, write in them, confer with
them. Just as cyber sex will never replace the love of a woman, e-books will
never be a vehicle for beautiful prose.

= What do you suggest to give blind and partially-sighted people easier access
to the Web?

Software companies need to develop voice activated software with the blind in
mind when it comes to quality and the broad consumer market when it comes to
profitabilty. It will never be profitable and affordable for the blind to have
technology catered to them. However, there are countless examples of
technologies that are developed with the less abled in mind and that have wide
appeal with the masses.

= What is your definition of cyberspace?

Cyberspace to me is the distance that is bridged when individuals use technology
to connect, either by sharing information or chatting. To say that one exists in
cyberspace is really to say that he has eliminated distance as a barrier to
connecting with people and ideas.

= And your definition of the information society?

The information society to me is the tangible form of Jung's collective
consciousness. Most of the information resides in the subconsciousness but
browsing technology has made the information more retrievable which in turn
allows us greater self knowledge both as individuals and as human beings.

= What is your best experience with the Internet?

My best experience with the Internet is using e-mail to stay in touch with
friends.

= And your worst experience?

My worst experience was learning how to use it before technology surpassed my
ineptitude.

MICHAEL MARTIN (Berkeley, California)

#Founder and president of Travlang, a site dedicated both to travel and
languages

Michael Martin created a Foreign Languages for Travelers section on his
university website in 1994 when he was a physics student in New York. A year
later, after its dizzying growth, he launched Travlang, a site that quickly
became a major portal for travel and languages and won a best travel site award
in 1997. Martin, now an experimental physics researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley
Nati