HOW DEEP IS YOUR WEB

Surfing the web: never a definition was more accurate. Because that’s exactly what you do when you search for something in the vast sea of the internet. A flat surface where the Google ship, for instance, lists less than 0,3% of the information available; out of 550 billion pages, you have access to a mere 2 billion. If you crave for more, you have to dive into what has been dubbed as the Deep Web, also Dark Web or Invisible Web, depending from the angle you look at the subject. Hackers continuously duck for a quick byte (pun intended) or plunge like penguins for a more consistent meal. Wikileaks is torpedoing the murky waters of classified documents and files, trying to blow out Government’s data submarines. Also porn has a big underwater industry linked to buoyant, more educated contents and I wonder why Mr. Assange, for instance, doesn’t focus on its illegalities instead of publishing Cold War dusty weapons’ sites or long lists of retired secret agents (including James Bond). Julian, really, we don’t really care about it. In my synoptic table I also mention Wikipedia which I imagine like a sort of oil well sucking contents from traditional, grounded, accumulated culture rather than fresh digital knowledge (content comes from continent). Amazon is pictured as an ideal, sunny beach because that’s the most successful example of a digital business linked to the beauty of our offline life. Isn’t it a pleasure receiving from the postman a cardboard box full of books you ordered with a click? There is something magic in it. The servers, oh yes, they are placed among snowy mountains. That’s the perfect place to cool the hot data crunch down. The Cloud, needless to say, is suspended over the sea, pouring rain and absorbing its vapors in a circular food chain because contents are generated and reflected like a didgeridoo breath. Bloggers (including myself) blog and reblog. 92% of people just browse and read, 3% attend a forum, 1% create contents. And the remaining 4% of the population? They still go out for a picnic, make love on the grass, hug the trees, feed the ants with biscuits’ crumbs. And if you ask them about the web, they say: ” Oh yes, I saw a big one today, tense for the dew’s touch. The spider was springing up and down like an harpist, striking an invisible melody. But probably I had been smoking too much, maaaan…”