Smithsonian Highlights

From the jungles of Chiapas, Mexico, Zapatista rebels use their Website Ya Basta (Enough Already) to attract global attention. In a Michigan classroom, students interact with archaeologists excavating a fourth-century monastery in Egypt. As The Motley Fool, two brothers dole out on-line investment advice, and on their Hot Hot Hot Website, a Pasadena couple market their specialty foods. Rabbis, it seems, do it, monks do it, even the Dalai Lama has a presence on the Web. How and why do they use cyberspace? How is this digital revolution changing the way we work, play, meet, learn and conduct business?

On February 8, 1996, Rick Smolan, creator of the "Day in the Life" books, dispatched 150 photojournalists around the globe to chronicle life on-line. "Our goal," says Smolan, "was to focus on the human face of cyberspace, to produce a 'digital snapshot' of this borderless new medium." These images can now be seen in a special show, "24 Hours in Cyberspace," at the National Museum of American History, through April, and in a book of the same name. They can also be accessed on-line at www.cyber24.com.