Trying
to come up with a list of the top ten local websites is an odd job. Not only is it hard to tell what’s
“local” from what’s not, it’s hard to decide what to include when the medium
itself is nearly as ubiquitous as paper and Xerox machines. Nevertheless,
here’s a brief look at some of highlights on the Austin Web scene that wound up
among my bookmarks in 1996.

1. ACTlab Projects at the University of Texas

http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/contents.html Sandy Stone has yet to make a cameo in a Woody Allen flick. Nonetheless, her
Advanced Communication Technologies Lab — “where technology, art, and culture
collide” — at UT is a fascinating post-McLuhan sandbox. Here, fascinating
student projects run along the edge of interactive communication and fly in the
face of marketers and push-technologists who seem hell-bent on turning the Web
into TV.

2. pcOrder

http://www.pcorder.com/ Thankfully, the noise of future communication is less about visual coolness
and vapid hypertext roads-to-nowhere. At some point the eye candy and trivia
melt away, and you find yourself with just enough time to return to a few sites
that help you with your work or your life. Yes, big business is slowly but
surely learning how to use the Web, and in the coming age of intranets and
online commerce, pcOrder is making waves by changing the ways computers are
bought and sold.

3. Texas Music Office

http://link.tsl.state.tx.us/.www/TMO.dir/tmo.html There are so many spunky sites of, by, and for Texas musicians that I won’t
attempt to pick a fave here. Director Casey Monahan and crew have compiled a
comprehensive index of information at the Texas Music Office; their large
Internet Guide to Texas Music is a grand place to turn for twang here in Austin
— and beyond.

4. Austin City Links

http://www.austinlinks.com/ Smartly redesigned and renamed last year, software developer Quadralay Corp.’s
directory continues to be a handy resource for finding all things Austin on the
Web.

5. Austin City Connection

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/ With a fresh, elegant new look and a to-the-point navigation scheme,
Austinites can now boast of having one of the best city government information
centers online. All that you could want to know about garbage pickup, council
meetings, and city parks is right here.

6. TPWD Austin Parks

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/cityarea/austarea.htm
Sure, it’s been bitterly cold this week, but when spring rolls around, true
Austinites head for the hills. Thanks to Texas Parks & Wildlife’s list of
state parks in our area, you can get the lowdown on perennial favorites like
Enchanted Rock and Pedernales Falls, or try something new.

7. DejaNews

http://www.dejanews.com/ Where do I find copies of albums by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy?
What’s the best underarm deodorant? Helpful advisors are standing by to
answer these and other questions, thanks to DejaNews’ pioneering efforts to
archive the vast streams of worldwide conversation in Usenet newsgroups.
Whenever I think that there’s no way anyone else wonders about the same weird
junk I do, I toss a few words into the “power search” engine and soon find that
I am not alone.

8. Austin Dining Net

http://austin.data.net/dining/ The reviews are dangerously pat, but it’s hard not to appreciate the amount of
work that’s gone into this index of local restaurants. I find it handy for
getting to know about what kinds of eats to expect when I’m visiting a new part
of town for the first time.

9. iChat

http://www.ichat.com/ iChat, you chat, we chat. 25-year-old Andrew Busey’s next-gen innovation is
riding high as a Web plug-in technology. Veterans of CompuServe’s CB simulator
and Internet Relay Chat are coming to appreciate iChat as the newest way to
talk, keyboard-to-keyboard.

10. PCL Map Collection Online

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/Map_collection.html I’ve always had a yen for looking at maps of far-off places. I’ll never make
it to all the places whose contours I’ve studied, but with the help of UT’s
Perry-Casta�eda Library, I could spend weeks just pretending. This
remarkable research effort makes archival map images available which cover
Travis County to the rest of the world. Best of all, unlike most other mapping
sites, the materials here are copyright-free so you can share and enjoy.

This article appears in January 10 • 1997 and January 10 • 1997 (Cover).

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US