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Presenting the Internet without
Wires:
An Instruction Book for Presenters
by
Jeanette S. Cates, Ph.D.
The Technology Tamer™
In this time of growing awareness and need for internet
instruction, we still are missing a key ingredient--connections! How
often do you present before a group without access to a telephone
line? Yet the internet is one of the most popular topics on speaking
circuits today. So how do you bring the power and wonder of the
internet to your audience? There are two methods that are inexpensive
and easy-to-do: caching and whacking.
Put it in Cache
Your web browser has a "cache" where it stores copies of the web
pages that you visit. The size of your cache determines how many
pages can be stored--roughly 30 pages, with graphics, per 1 megabyte
of cache. I have found that 15MB of cache can store enough pages for
a 3-hour demonstration of the internet.
To set the size of your cache, in Netscape Navigator 2, Choose
Network Preferences from the Options menu, then set the size of the
cache.
The evening before your presentation, use your browser to visit
all of the sites that you want to demonstrate. Once you have visited
a web page, it will be in cache. You can tell by looking at a web
page which linked pages are in cache because they are a different
color. For example, if linking text is bright blue and underlined,
then cached locations are dark blue and underlined. Your cache stores
pages on a first-in, first-out basis so the more recent your visit to
the page, the closer it is to the top of the cache. When the cache is
full, it will erase several files from the bottom of the cache--the
oldest files first. That's why it is important to visit the
sites close to the time of your demonstration.
Set up the presentation
There are two settings in your browser that contribute to a more
effective presentation. For a smooth beginning, you want to set your
browser to open to a blank page. That way you can start the browser
application without its trying to connect to the modem. It will wait
for you to provide a URL or click on the Home button before looking
for a connection. To ensure that the browser opens to a blank page,
in Netscape Navigator 2, choose General Preferences under the Options
menu, then click Blank Page.
You'll want to do this before you begin the presentation.
The second setting you'll need to change is how often to
check the page. This tells your browser to go to that URL site and
get a fresh copy of the web page. When you are browsing "live" on the
internet, you want to check the pages once per session. When you
visit that site a second time, your browser usually will load the
page from cache (which was the original purpose of the cache). If you
do a lot of browsing with services that update every few minutes, you
probably want to load a new copy of the page every time you visit
that site. But when you are demonstrating without a connection, you
don't ever want the browser to look for a fresh copy of that
page; instead you want it to load from cache. To ensure that you are
using your cache and the browser is not trying to connect, in
Netscape Navigator 2, choose Network Preferences under the Options
menu, then check Never.
During the Presentation
You'll be able to see which web pages you have cached because
of the difference in color of the linked text. So during your
demonstration, click only on those lines. Maps and clickable pictures
will not work from cache. These depend on CGI scripts on the internet
computer where they reside. Since these scripts cannot be downloaded
into cache, you'll need to click on the text for those links,
rather than the pictures. Well-designed web pages have both pictures
and text to allow for the differences in browsers. If you encounter a
page without the text option, you can always set a bookmark for the
page you want to go to. During the demonstration, you'll just
use the bookmark instead of the linking text.
For the first few web pages that you show, leave the settings as
you would for a regular browsing session. However, anyone who
presents will tell you that you'll lose people in the back of
the room if they can't see--and they can't see the usual
12-point font in the browser. So take a moment to go into the Options
menu, choose General Preferences, then click on the Font tab.
Pull down the sizes to at least an 18-point. This size
doesn't disrupt the layout of the screen too much, but it does
make it more visible to the back row. In a standard presentation,
this will be sufficient.
Occasionally you'll want to "zoom in" on parts of the screen,
often to wake up that infamous back row. There are programs that let
you do this. On the Macintosh, for example, there is a free control
panel named CloseView. It is available in the Apple Extras folder on
your computer or from the Disability Group on the Apple Web pages
(http://www.apple.com) By using predefined keys, you can enlarge any
part of the screen 2 to 4 times to show detail, such as a URL address
or a button.
If you are using Internet Explorer either on a Windows or
Macintosh computer, you can click on the Larger or Smaller font size
in order to increase the detail on the screen.
Cache-less Presentations
There are a few drawbacks to using the cache. First of all, it is
dependent on your using the same machine to cache items and to
demonstrate. Sometimes this isn't possible. Second, if you use
your computer for personal browsing and for presentations, you will
overwrite your cache frequently. So each time you get ready to do a
presentation, you will need to re-cache your web sites. Finally, if
you work with a group and want to designate one person to do the
browsing, then provide those resources to other group members, it is
not possible because of the non-transferability of cache. That leads
to the subject of "whacking" or saving sites for offline
browsing.
Using a program such as WebBuddy,
you can identify the sites that you want to show. You then set your
browser to "whack" those pages. This process takes a copy of the
page, with all of its pictures and movies, and saves it to a
designated folder. Since you can specify the depth and breadth of the
whacking you want to do on a site, you might also get copies of the
three layers below that page and the first level of URLs out from
that page. In essence, you have a full copy of that page that will
act just like a live copy, except for the maps and pictures, as
explained above.
There are several advantages to whacking. First, you get a saved
copy of a page and all of its resources. This copy can be moved from
one computer to another, allowing you to take it with you or others
to share in your efforts and knowledge. Second, you get the page with
a title on it, whereas cache "copies" have numbers randomly assigned
by your browser. This naming allows for targeted deleting later when
you no longer need the page. Third, some of the tools, such as
WebWhacker (a different brand than WebBuddy) creates a page of links
to all of the pages you whacked, providing an easy-to-use menu of
stored pages. Finally, when you whack pages, you can browse those
pages offline, saving time on your internet bill.
Just as there are advantages, there are also disadvantages. First,
there is still some debate about the legality of whacking pages. Some
argue that it is a violation of copyright law. Another group says
that "echoing" pages is not copying them--it is just providing a
reflection of what is online. Other experts argue that whacking is no
different from caching, except in its permanence. Other creators say
that they want their pages to be seen by as many people as possible,
offline as well as online, so they are glad that others are
distributing their pages. Since programs like WebWhacker leave behind
the email address of the person doing the whacking, any sites who
have an objection can contact you. Further, if you plan to use a
whacked page more than once, you are probably more correct in
emailing to ask permission to whack and use the page.
The second drawback to whacking pages is that the pages are
static. This does not present a problem for sites that do not change
often; however, for news services and others that change content
frequently, a stored whacked version will not be as current as one
you have stored to cache. Finally, whacked pages and all of their
resources are space-consuming, so you need a very large hard drive or
removeable media such as a Zip cartridge.
The Best of Both Worlds
Yes, there is room for cache and cache-less sites in your
presentation. Set bookmarks for those pages that are whacked, adding
the word "recorded" to their title. You can begin your demonstration
by using cached pages, open the menu file to your whacked pages to
access several of those pages, then use bookmarks to access both
cached and whacked pages. At the end of the presentation, I'll
challenge anyone to decide if it was live...or wireless!
About the Author
Dr. Jeanette Cates, The
Technology Tamer™, is a consultant specializing in the planning,
implementation, and assessment of technology. She is the founder of
TechTamers, a training and consulting company. Dr. Cates speaks
frequently on the creation and support of online communities.
© 1998 Permission is granted to reprint this article in print
or on your web site so long as the paragraph above is included and
contact information is provided to www.TechTamers.com.
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