"The Internet Revolution"
In honor of Google's 10th birthday, Google released a mini-site containing their earliest index from 2001. Needless to say, it's brought a lot of laughs and plenty of memories. I really encourage you to take a look at it if you haven't.
Most of the results that came up for db237_distortion were ones related to my stint with the Future Business Leaders of America, or FBLA. From 1999 to 2001, I held the "office" of "Eastern Region Webmaster" (giggle), which pretty much entailed that I had the duty of overseeing the the online presences of each state in the region. I (believe I) did pretty well in that position, making sure that each state chapter made a point of getting a certain percentage of their chapters online while in office. When I assumed the position, I wrote the article below for the national mailing list.
I can't help but laugh at all the buzzwords I used and I think you'll get a good laugh out of it as well.
FBLA-Y2K, THE INTERNET REVOLUTION
by Bryan Veloso, National Eastern Region Webmaster
When was the last time you checked your e-mail? The last time that you talked to friends on AOL Instant Messenger or ICQ? How about the last time you surfed for fun? Well, everywhere we go these days, people cannot seem to get away without the power of the Internet. The Future Business Leaders of America is no exception to the rule. As a business organization, we have to keep up with technology. Well, there are a few people that have the skills to build web sites as well as surf through them, the name given to these individuals are webmasters. They are the heart and soul of what you see before you in FBLA-PBL sites, and the entire Internet for that fact. My job as webmaster is to push along and oversee the development of chapter web pages throughout the nine states of the Eastern Region. This is not an easy task and requires a lot of time taken out of an already busy FBLA schedule. The first and foremost priority of the position is the Eastern Region Web Site, in which I call the "portal" to the region. My other priorities are to oversee the constant development and updates of the nine state web sites: New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and finally the local chapters within.
Officers are not officers without plans and projects and Webmasters are no different. So I have two projects that I would like to see developed during my term, the first of which is the "75% Plan." It's not very self explanatory, however it refers to the number of web sites in the Eastern Region. I am trying to help restart and develop sites for chapters that do not have them yet. At the end of my term, I would like to see either 75% of the whole Eastern Region on the Internet or 75% of the chapters in each of the nine states online. It sounds hard but anything can be done in the FBLA. [...]
The second of the two projects is code-named "FBLA-Y2K." This is an extra piece of work on my behalf to further connect the chapters of the Eastern Region and the Nation. This will be a portal parallel to the Regional web sites and will serve as a new information source and interaction network for the FBLA. A fellow Webmaster from the Southern Region, Dave Johnson, will be helping me with this endeavor so expect a new FBLA site to be coming up later this year.
So if you are in one of those chapters who have not seen the light of the Internet yet, please contact www.highwired.com or get in contact with me at my email address and give me the name of chapter. It will be my pleasure to help you make a presence on the Internet and in turn helping me lead the Eastern Region through the Year 2000.
If you can find something humorous about your internet past, feel free to comment, or write a post and link it here! Hell, I'm telling you to link to yourself! I'm really interested in seeing what you were all like back then. ;)