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beyond the northeast corner
Freemasonry
And The World-Wide Web
CHAPTER XVI
Richard h. sands
Introduction
ALL OVER THE WORLD, institutions with
information to disseminate are literally pouring it into the World-Wide Web
(“WWW”), and Freemasonry is no exception. Masons have made an enormous volume of
material available to those seeking more light on this ancient
Fraternity.
Information on the Web is almost always
cross-indexed to related material. This feature makes any search an adventure.
The searcher never really knows what hidden byway will reveal a striking new
insight, a nugget of historical fact, or a beautiful image.
If you are new to this technology, this
note will give you enough basic information to get started.
Basic
requirements
To begin your search, you must have
access to a computer equipped with a connection to the Internet and a piece of
software called a “browser.” If you are not familiar with these terms, or with
computer basics-- how to start a program, type in short phrases, and use a
mouse, this note cannot help you. You should seek help through friends,
co-workers or professionals at your local public library, or short courses at a
local educational institution.
Structure
of the Web
The Web is not a physical thing. It is
actually a constantly-changing collection of millions of computer files with a
common structure or layout called HTML (an acronym for ‘hypertext markup
language’.) Unless you plan to post information of your own on the Web, you need
not understand the structure. Your browser-- a program like Netscape Navigator,
or Microsoft Internet Explorer-- understands and interprets the file for you by
placing images and text on your computer screen when it opens an HTML
file.
The HTML files (also called ‘documents’)
are exchanged over the Internet, a huge collection of computers connected
together by a complex telecommunication system. Your own computer need not be
permanently connected to the Internet to receive documents. You can make a
temporary connection by dialing into a local ‘Internet service provider’ with
your modem.
The name “Web” was suggested by an
important feature of HTML documents-- an ability to include links or references
to other HTML documents. Since each document in the system potentially holds
links to many other documents, the image of a spider web was suggested to the
early designers. Each document represents a point where many silken threads come
together. Since the documents are actually stored on computers all over the
world, the concept of “World Wide Web” was but a short jump.
In practice, any word, phrase or picture
on the screen can be made by the HTML author into an active connection-- called
a “link”-- to any another document. When the reader points to such a link with
the cursor and clicks the mouse, the browser automatically locates and loads the
document referred to and displays it on the screen in place of the original.
(This jumping from document to document reminded early designers of the way the
Starship Enterprise could jump through hyperspace, which led to the “hypertext”
part of HTML name.)
The browser usually distinguishes “link”
words or phrases in the text from ordinary ones through color or typeface. Also,
when the cursor is placed over such a link, without clicking on it, there is
usually some indication from the browser about where the link will take
you.
File
names and bookmarks
The names for files or documents on the
web are punctuated in a peculiar way, which allows the Internet to identify,
locate and request the page you have linked to. Internet links for web documents
look something like this:
http://www.yahoo.com/
The first part, through the two //
marks, tells the browser that you will be looking for an HTML document. This is
helpful, because there are other types of documents stored on the web which
require other software to display properly. The WWW part is conventional, not
required, and tells the world that the document was intended as part of the
World-wide Web. The next part,
after the first period, is usually the Internet name for the company or
institution responsible for posting the document. The last part, .com, means
that the sponsor is a commercial organization. (Other possibilities include .EDU
for an educational institution, .GOV for government, .ORG for a nonprofit
organization.)
If the link ends with .com, your browser
will be looking for a file, on the computer maintained by that institution, with
the computer file of index.htm or index.html as its name. Such a file acts like
a table of contents to other files of interest on the specified Internet site.
Alternatively, the link may spell out a particular file desired, such
as
http://www.yahoo.com/info.htm
In this case, everything after the last
/ identifies a particular file available on the institution’s host computer. The
entire name, including the punctuation is commonly called a URL, for “unique
record locator.” As the name
suggests, it serves as an unambiguous way to locate, or link to, any document
stored on any computer connected to the Internet.
Luckily, you seldom have to type out any
of these long URL file names. Most of the time, you will only know about them
because they appear as links in some other document you are reading on the
screen. In that case, it is only necessary to “point and click” to read the
document you want to jump to.
Once you arrive at a page of interest,
you might want to keep track of its URL or Internet address for future
reference. Your browser contains a “bookmarking” feature for this purpose. While
looking at a page, you merely click the appropriate button to “add a bookmark”
and a memo will be stored away to bring you back again with the click of a
mouse. The bookmarking feature lets you organize your bookmarks in folders, with
names like “Freemasonry,” to group together references to a single topic. (The
bookmark file is itself an HTML document which can be shared with
friends.)
Your browser will be programmed to
“start up” at some particular page on the Web, called the home page. If you get
lost in your search, you can always come “home” by clicking on the browser
button set up to take you there. You can change your home page to any page on
the web. I like to start up with a “search engine” and have set my home page to
one of the best, www.yahoo.com
Using
Search Engines
With all the millions of documents on
the web, it would be impossible to find what you are interested in without some
sort of index. Since it is constantly changing, the Web is constantly being
indexed by robotic programs called “search engines.” The search engine reads all
the documents it can find, indexes any key words and phrases, and follows all
the embedded links to find still more documents. The results are made available
without charge to searches in a form much like the card catalog at a library.
(Search engine companies are financed by selling “advertising” which appears
with the results when you make a search.)
To find information about
Freemasonry, for example, it is only necessary to type that word into the
“search” window of one of the engines, like Yahoo.
Society
and Culture: Organizations: Social: Freemasonry
St. Lawrence
Freemason - electronic newspaper supporting Freemasonry in general and within
St. Lawrence County, New York specifically.
Freemasonry
on the Internet - learn about the worlds oldest and largest fraternal
organization, Freemasonry.
Italian
Freemasonry: Pietre-Stones - review of free thought. Essays regarding the
history of freemasonry and its influence in arts, literature and
music.
soc.org.freemasonry
Page - a world wide Usenet forum for the discussion of Freemasonry, moderated to
eliminate hate-filled posts and to remain on-topic.
Story of
Jersey Freemasonry - Freemasonry came to Jersey with the travelling Lodges
attached to military units in the 18th Century, and its progress to
date.
World of
Freemasonry - Freemasonry's charities and history, includes "The Antiquity of
the Craft".
Regional:
Countries: New Zealand: Regions: Bay of Plenty: Cities: Rotorua: Community:
Organizations
Freemason
Lodge Matakana - information about the Lodge, includes meeting details and
contact information as well as a links page.
As you can see, it’s a mixed bag, and in
no particular order. Each of the 138 lines, however is a link to a page of
information. That page will link to others, and so the search
begins.
There are two Masonic links which are
likely to be around for a while and to contain relevant information for the
newcomer: the emason web ring, and the home page for the Michigan Grand
Lodge.
Web
Rings
Web rings are a collection of web pages
devoted to a single topic, and linked together in a giant structure like a ring.
This structure is actually more like the children’s game “ring-around-rosy”
because a new page can be added at any time, merely by “joining hands”
(connecting links) with a pair of neighboring sites on the same ring. The joy of
this is that a single click of the mouse can take you from one site devoted to a
certain topic to another, in a random or orderly fashion as you
prefer.
The web ring devoted to freemasonry can
be found at URL
http://www.2be1ask1.com/emason/index.html
It is carefully monitored by some
devoted Brothers from New Jersey, and contains a vast collection of informative
and interesting material on Freemasonry.
Michigan
Grand Lodge Home Page
The home page for the Grand Lodge of
Michigan is found at URL
http://www.gl-mi.org/
Among other useful things to be found
there is a method for subscribing to an e-mail mailing list for Michigan masons.
If your browser includes the ability to initiate email (most do, but not all)
you can enroll on the list by following the instructions on the Grand Lodge
page. If not, and you have access
to an independent email account, you can subscribe by sending a blank message
(no subject, no content) from your regular email account to the
address
mailto:mi-masons-subscribe@egroups.com
(Note that
this is an email address, not the URL of a web page.)
Enjoy
your Journey
It’s always dangerous to list particular
links in a publication, because they can be obsolete in the blink of an eye. The
easiest way to appreciate what’s “out there” is to take the plunge, point your
search engine to “freemason*” and follow wherever it leads. May it lead you
always toward the light.
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