As for my professional future, I especially hope the Internet will eventually allow me to work from home, at least part of the time. It would avoid two and a half hours of travelling every day…
= What do you think of the debate about copyright on the Web?
I haven't followed these discussions. But I think it's going to be hard to maintain the community spirit which was the basis of the Internet in the beginning.
= How do you see the growth of a multilingual Web?
I think a multilingual Web's a very positive thing. The Internet doesn't belong to any one nation or language. It's a vehicle for culture, and the first vector of culture is language. The more languages there are on the Net, the more cultures will be represented there. I don't think we should give in to the kneejerk temptation to translate web pages into a largely universal language. Cultural exchanges will only be real if we're prepared to meet with the other culture in a genuine way. And this effort involves understanding the other culture's language. This is very idealistic of course. In practice, when I'm monitoring, I curse Norwegian or Brazilian websites where there's isn't any English.
= What is your best experience with the Internet?
The day I won a box of Swiss chocolates on the Health On the Net site. But don't rush to this site, the game doesn't exist any more.
= And your worst experience?
The abuse of e-mail: bad-mannered people take advantage of the distance and relative anonymity to say not very nice things and take really juvenile attitudes with, alas, consequences which are not always the kind you find in a children's world. For example, I once forwarded an email to somebody I thought would be interested in the subject and the person wrote directly to the original sender and discredited me.
CATHERINE DOMAIN (Paris)