TRUST IN PEOPLE
Since we have this World-Wide Web, anyone who is able to read and write the HTML-style can get in here and make as much noise as he wants to. A noise that is probably seen and heard by many visitors and, ever now and then, even expected from them. Having fun is a big deal - sometimes -, but on the Net mainly the serious stuff is worth being cared for. (If you think that the scantily dressed girls and boys provided by some online magazines are real fun, then you do not have much. Do you?)
Surfing on the Web, it is fun to stay on sites that present multicolour-dipped textures with hyperlinks all over, taking you from here to there - and most of the time to nowhere. Former worlds are just a move apart with your mouse's arrow. So maybe you find yourself surfing in one of these sites that look like a postmodern version of the middle of nowhere, and you wonder why... What have you been looking for? Some real interesting news, some brand new pictures from some brand new films? Some real specific texts on a real specific topic? Well, looking for education and science you discovered the direct gateway to the world of Tupperware and jump & run for 10$ per month. "Isn't that great?" You ask. "It isn't." You silently speak to yourself as you turn off your computer system and go out to have some fun in the real world as you know it.
Information is not hard to find these days. It is specific information on demand that causes the problems most of the Net-users try to solve by having Internet Relay Chats and interactive gambling - without any success, and nobody wonders why. Yes, there are bunches of search engines and varieties of yellow pages and in fact they provide helpful hints once or twice a year. But what about the remaining 363 days and nights? Having the possibility to download all the valuable content you gain for, you end up with ordering at http://www.pizzahut.com/.
Pointing to the solution to this well known way of digitally having a bit on the side, Esther Dyson said in WIRED 3.07, page 182: "In the end, the only unfungible, unreplicable value in the new economy will be people's presence, time, and attention".
And that is the reason why Athena is in it.
It is not intellectual content like fancy pages overgrown with noisy links you have to look for, but intellectual value, provided by information professionals: You need people that care for your desires and pay attention on the tasks you want to be worked out. You do not have to trust in bits and bytes. Trust in people. So do we.