Maryann Samson is no computer nerd. She is a farmer - and a Business
Administradtion graduate. She purchased her personal computer after she
received her degree in 1987 to use software to manage the farm taxes and
other financial matters. The Internet and other computer mediated
communication facilities were no topic for a frontpage press story in
the late 1980ies.
When RAIN offered Internet access, bulletin boards and e-mail, Maryann
became curios about it. Rumors about the new system spread across
Marshall, and the local library advertised it.
So she got herself a modem, and access to RAIN. What she found was an
interesting place of message exchange, wide-area communication, information
retrievel opportunities and a great number of confusing, new things she had
to learn about.
After mastering the difficulties of the new medium, Maryann Samson, 56, found
useful hints for her profession: she subscribed to electronic mail lists about
farm taxes and recordkeeping - where, as she explains - changes in laws
concerning farms are reported earlier than in any other media.
Help for her business software package was available and welcome.
Eventually, some of her children had an interest in electronic communications
and explored the field.
The means of Maryann's access to the information highway are as simple as
they could be: she uses her modem and a text based terminal software when
she connects to RAIN. No pictures, movies or sound show up on her screen.
But recently, she explored the World Wide Web and now she is interested in
accessing the images. She has many uses for the new world of information.
From downloading the current car pricing from car companies to researching
civil war history matters for her husband, she keeps exploring the huge but
unorganized collection of material on the Web. "The worst thing about the
Internet is that it is so confusing - you don't know where to look for the
things you want", she says.
She now considers upgrading her personal computer with more memory and
a software package to use graphical Web browsers. So besides managing the
farm and communicating with her children's families, she will start to
explore the huge world of sound and images on the World Wide Web.
"It will take a while - people at our age don't learn so fast about
computers" are her words about the future plans for her jouryney
through Cyberspace.
