It was (almost) 20 years ago today ...

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web, here is the first Internet story I ever wrote, published April 10, 1994. In print.

In unearthing this gem, my search term was "information superhighway." a term quite in vogue at the time. Other headlines that day included "Authorities say rapes often go unreported" and "Cobain's suicide perplexes local youth."

GROUP SELLS `ON RAMP' TO INTERNET

Remember that old encyclopedia you had when you were a kid? The one in which Eisenhower was still president and the Piltdown man was still regarded as a revolutionary archaeological find?

OK, you were brilliant and got straight A's in spite of it. But think of how much easier it would have been if you'd had the latest information at your fingertips.

It's the computer age now. Although there's still lots of work to be done on the much-hyped "information superhighway," eastern Idahoans will soon have an easier time of getting linked up to the Internet, the worldwide network on which it's possible to get the latest information on practically anything.

SRVnet, a new non-profit organization based in Idaho Falls, is offering low-cost access to the Internet, access that has been limited until now to universities and government research agencies.

"My children just get on it and cruise," said Nancy Peterson, who is seeking investors and subscribers to help raise the $40,000 the association needs.

There are significant differences between SRVnet and commercial services like Compuserve, Prodigy and America OnLine. The people who run commerical services limit a user's exposure to what they want the user to see -- usually things for which they've been paid. The offer hook-ups to the Internet, but that involves a surcharge on top of the base cost, Peterson said.

With SRVnet, a user pays a set amount for a straight pipeline to the Internet. A "gold membership" costs $240 for two years, giving a user four free hours every month. Silver members pay $120 for one year, involving three free hours a month. Bronze members pay $10 a month for two free hours a month. Extra use in all three cases is billed at $3 an hour.

"If we could get 120 gold members and 120 silver members to sign up, we could begin," Peterson said. "The necessary documents have been filed and the equipment is waiting to be ordered."
If the effort falls through, all money will be refunded, Peterson said.

There will be a one-time charge of $29.95 for software, or users may purchase their own.
It's also essential to get a basic computer setup that can process information fairly fast. Any IBM compatible PC should be at least a 386 with Windows software (the programs will also run on Macintosh.) A regular telephone line will work fine, but the modem's capacity should be 9600 bps or more.

A good modem will cost around $150 to $200, Peterson said. PC prices vary and are coming down all the time. "In the next few years, you're going to see more and more people coming online," she added.

Anyone with children should be particularly interested in getting online with SRVnet, since the service will be very similar to the Internet access public schools will be offering. For business people, the Internet offers a competitive edge, both in gathering and putting out information. It's possible to start a bulletin board on the Internet that allows you to get your message out to anyone who has an interest in what you have to offer, Peterson said.

Idaho Falls produces edgy people? Believe it

Idaho Falls native Jared Gold, now a fashion designer and creative director at Woodbury University in Los Angeles.

For all that is being written about Millennials, I think it might be Generation X that amazes us most when all is said and done.

Working on a book for Arcadia Publishing, "Legendary Locals of Idaho Falls," I have discovered some extraordinary people born here around 1971. Two stand out in particular, Jared Gold and Darcy Stanger, and it comes as no surprise they were friends who lived four or five houses away from each other on 11th Street.

Gold is a fashion designer in Los Angeles; Dame Darcy (her professional name) is a cartoonist, illustrator, designer, doll maker and musician based in Savannah, Ga. Discovering both of them nearly simultaneously, I wondered how Idaho Falls, routinely dismissed as boring, could have produced such avant garde people.

"Was there something in the water?" I asked Gold in telephone interview Wednesday afternoon. His answer was more interesting. Basically, they were too young to be Baby Boomers but too early for the Internet.

"I ask people whether they had the Internet in high school," he said. "If you didn't, it puts you on the leading edge of Generation X."

Gold occupied himself by silkscreening T-shirts and selling them, publishing an infozine called "Aqualung" (surreptitiously using the copier at Chesbro's, where he worked) and organizing raves in Idaho Falls and Rexburg.

"It gave me a lot of confidence, and when I moved to a bigger city I was ready," he said.

He went to Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, and after graduating in 1992 began creating fashion for men, women and children, taking inspiration from antiquated imagery and Victorian sewing details. On television, he appeared as a guest judge on America's Next Top Model in 2006 (an episode that featured his "Roach Brooch" jewelry) and in March 2009 he was a special guest judge on Germany's Next Top Model, hosted by Heidi Klum.

Dame Darcy, born Darcy Meghan Stanger, in mermaid regalia near a replica of H.M.S. Bounty.

On a similar track, Stanger won a scholarship at age 17 to the San Francisco Art Institute. After graduating, she started a alternative comic book, "Meat Cake." She has designed murals and stained glass for celebrities (Courtney Love, Margaret Cho) and done window displays for Forbidden Planet in New York City. For a period, she played banjo and sang Elizabethan murder ballads at the legendary punk club CBGB, to keep people from leaving when the bands were setting up their equipment behind the curtain.

"She has an unadorned style of singing that's really effective, and visually she makes a impression," said her dad, sign painter and bluegrass musician Mike Stanger.

Dame Darcy summed up her Idaho Falls years in an online interview: "(I) spent seventeen years there in an ice cavern, drawing, doing dumb little plays I wrote, and making flip books. Everything I learned to do then, I make money doing now."

Gold said there are other amazing people their age from Idaho Falls, including Natalie Behring, an internationally renowned photographer now based in Portland, Ore.

"We were the children of a generation that kind of realized there was another way other than the Baby Boomer path," he said.

Random Musings: Selfies, old phone exchanges and laughing gas

I went to the dentist this morning and after they put the nitrous mask on my nose and left me alone for a minute or two I did what any 21st century American would do. I pulled my phone out, took a selfie and posted it to Facebook.

"At the dentist, huffing NO2. Hahahahaha!" said the text that ran with the photo. Then, in my gas-addled state, I added the hashtag "#comfort_care_dental," thinking I might get a discount (no dice) but also wanting to show the world I'm in the know when it comes to social media.

The entire staff were greatly amused, but I couldn't believe it doesn't happen all the time. Don't we live in the selfie age?

A few years ago I was playing guitar and singing at local coffee house when a group of teen-agers came in and plopped down on the sofa. For the next 45 minutes, all they did was take pictures of each other with their phones.

Elizabeth Taylor never took a selfie. All you needed to do was call BUtterfield 8.

I can handle being ignored. I don't like it, but it happens all the time. But this was annoying, and I was strongly tempted to razz them from where I was sitting. In the end, I just kept on, but it was my introduction to the selfie mentality.

Have I become like them? Actually, yes. My wife tells me I'm as bad as any kid when it comes to my smart phone -- pulling it out every two minutes, looking at it, ignoring the world around me. It's rude, she says, and she's right. If I have a meeting, I have to leave my phone in the car. I feel kind of like Marlon Brando did when he threw cheeseburgers over the fence trying to convince himself not to eat so much (it didn't work).

Remember when the only phones in your world were the ones at home, at work, and the ones that cost a dime to make a call?

Remember when phone numbers had two letters at the beginning? The prefix to every number in Idaho Falls was JA, for JAckson. "Jackson 3-7393" sounds like a Wilson Pickett song, but it's the number I've had for more than 30 years.

According to the Telephone EXchange Name Project, Blackfoot was SUnset, Rexburg was either ELmwood or ELwood and Rigby was SHerwood. There is a database where you can go to look up any town or city in the U.S.A., which makes me so glad we have the Internet.

Here's the cherry on top: A chart of Ma Bell's officially recommended exchange names. According to it, my smart phone number, 821-1285, should begin with one of the following: TAlbot, TAlmadge, TAylor, VAlley or VAndyke. Even though I like the last one best, I think Taylor rolls off the tongue best. "Hey man, call me at Taylor 1-1285."

I've wandered away from the subject of selfies, but that's OK. The past has so much to give us that's weird and fascinating. Could we marry the conveniences of the present with everything from the past that makes us smile? Or does the past make us smile because it's the past? In 50 years, maybe people will think of selfies as fondly as I do of my old phone number, Olympia 5-9822. I doubt it, but who knows? I don't expect to be around to find out.

Marketing Your Personal Brand: Define, Design and Deliver

Personal branding sounds simple enough, right? If we were to sum it up in the Reader’s Digest version it would be, "define, design and deliver." If you have already defined and designed your personal brand, now it is time to deliver with your launch.  But where do you start?

The first step is to determine who you want your brand to reach.  Is it designed solely for professional purposes?  Or is it designed for personal and professional purposes? (This is what I would recommend.)

Similar to basic marketing campaigns and strategies, the first step is determining who your target market is. The brand launch you create has to encompass how these individuals think, behave and even feel. It’s important to understand at least some basic qualities of your intended market to better reach them.

Regardless of who you are trying to reach, networking is crucial to the success of your personal brand. The age-old principle of "it’s not what you know but who you know" will hold forever true.
But before you start signing yourself up for various networking events, clubs and conferences, keep in mind if you are launching your personal brand you need to identify avenues for networking that fit you. This can be anything from attending events specifically aimed at encouraging networking and building relationships; joining a professional organization; or just volunteering.  It’s never easy to be the new person in a group or setting, but with time and commitment the right relationships can be built and if maintained.

Web presence is also important with personal branding. From social media, blogs and online resumes, it is certain that without a Web presence your personal brand will not succeed. In creating this presence you have to determine what you want the world -- that’s right, the whole world -- to see.

The best way to start this process is to Google yourself and see what is out there about you. You may be surprised how much there may be about you on the Web right now.  I Googled myself and I saw everything from my business to events I have been a part of to volunteer organizations. There were even pictures from my high school reunion -- without me in them.

The point of doing this is that if you are going to decide what you want the world to see you have to determine what it is the world can already see. Then comes the careful balance of how much information is too much information, what is appropriate and inappropriate, and how personal you want to get.  Regardless of what you decide to put out, quality is better than quantity when it comes to content online. 

Although there is no magical formula on how to create the perfect personal marketing/public relations campaign for your personal brand, keep in mind that the definition, design, and launch of your personal brand should always be based on you from start to finish.

MacKenzie River Pizzas opens at Snake River Landing

MacKenzie River Pizza franchisee Colin Higgins, at the benefit Saturday night for Development Workshop. The Idaho Falls restaurant, at Snake River Landing, officially opens today. (Photo by Melissa Bristol)

After a soft opening Saturday night, with a share of the profits going to Development Workshop, MacKenzie River Pizza, 1490 Milligan Road, is officially open today.

This is the 20th restaurant for the Montana-based chain, which began in Bozeman in 1993, and the third in Idaho (Pocatello and Couer d'Alene are the others). It is also the second owned by Colin Higgins of Butte, one of the chain's first franchisees.

Higgins said he is impressed by the reception MacKenzie River has gotten in Idaho Falls. "We had more than 2,000 Facebook likes before we opened our doors," he said. "People are great. People love to eat here."

While the Idaho Falls restaurant retains the "A River Runs Through It" decor that the chain is known for, it has some variations in the menu and layout. "It's a continually evolving brand," Higgins said.

For a look at the menu, click here. The restaurant is managed by Pat O'Rourke. For more information, call (208) 932-2987