Sure - America Online, CompuServe, and the Internet are computer networks - but don't forget, so are air-traffic control systems, cash machines, and supermarket checkout scanners. The Networked Planet, a permanent exhibit at The Computer Museum in Boston, introduces visitors to the panoply of computer networks and their social implications.
At the start of the exhibit, you receive a key card. After supplying the exhibit's computer network with information like your name, age, and zip code, you select one of four video "exhibit guides." At stations throughout the exhibit, you log in by swiping your card through a reader, and your guide greets you.
Each of the video guides presents a different perspective: Erica, a young mother who runs a small business from home, talks about the difficulties of balancing work and family. Beatrice, an older publishing executive, contrasts how things are done now with how they used to be done. Max, a social worker, raises issues of the technical haves and have-nots. Jessie, a teenage hacker, is supposed to be a voice of young people, but her performance falls a bit flat.
The exhibit shows how prevalent computer networks are in everyday life - even without a Net account. Pick up one of the pay phones on the museum wall when it rings, and you'll hear an explanation of how telephone networks and touch tones work. You can also access data from weather satellites. And a live air-traffic control area displays planes in flight over the United States. In the last exhibit area, museum visitors can surf the Net and poke around CompuServe.
The show designers effectively portray the risks as well as the benefits of network technologies. For example, a chilling video segment from CNN explains that companies can legally monitor their employees' every actions without informing them that they're being watched. To bring the point home, near the end of the exhibit, you can spy on other museum visitors using the network.
The exhibit, which opened late last year, still has some kinks. Some of the touch screens have impossibly small icons, and many things were broken - but of course not all of those are the museum's fault. When I was there, a 6-year-old boy managed to crash Mosaic twice in five minutes. Now that's a real education about the Net!
The Networked Planet: US$7 adults, $5 kids. The Computer Museum: +1 (617) 426 2800.
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