Letter from Boston A Worldwide Audience By MASAKO YAMADA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
世界中からのホームページアクセス 以前から人のホームページを見て楽しんでいた雅子さん。数ヵ月前に自分のホームページを新しく作り直したところ、毎日、世界中の人からアクセスがあります。どんな人がどんな目的で見ているのか分からないのは少し不安ですが、たくさんの人に見てもらえるのはうれしいことです。

I used to find great pleasure in surfing personal Web pages of people I'd never met. I now don't have the time to do that sort of thing, but I recall very vividly the thrill I felt in catching glimpses of an unknown life ... a story that, somehow, seemed forbidden.

Of course, people who make personal Web pages know full well that (unless the page is password protected) anybody can look at that Web page. Indeed, some people feel an extreme sense of pride in getting as many hits as possible.

However, I think it's fair to say that most people expect only a limited number of viewers, and they know what sort of viewer to expect. Because of this, they can adjust the content accordingly.

For instance, business professionals or academics often try to remove all traces of human personality from their Web pages. College students expect their friends, family and perhaps, students from their university, to look at their Web pages, so they adopt a casual, inviting persona. Movie stars expect their fans to visit their sites, so they combine juicy tidbits with, ultimately, a thick wall of privacy.

When I renewed my new Web page a few months ago, I expected only my friends, family, fellow Boston University students and ST readers to look at the page. This was logical to me, since I advertised my site only to a limited range of people. My Web page is listed in the general BU Web directory, as well as the Physics Department directory, so visitors to the BU site could easily make a detour to my site, even if they don't know me.

I mentioned the Web page in an ST article too, so I knew that some of the readers would probably check it out.

It follows that I expected most of my hits to come from the United States or Japan. Indeed, this has been the case. However, much to my surprise, I have been getting viewers from other parts of the world, as well.

Since I design my own Web page, and keep it on my own computer account, I can see which countries I get hits from. I do not know how to find out who the actual viewers are (unless they write to me), but just keeping track of the different countries has been very interesting.

My Web page has gotten visitors from as far away as Mexico, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Austria, Denmark, France, U.K., Italy, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Romania and Estonia. I don't know how to react to this.

On the one hand, I am very excited, and flattered, to know that I have a worldwide audience. I'm especially happy to see all these European entries, since I like to think of myself as having a slightly European sensibility (the actual Europeans that I know might protest, but at least I know what I like).

I certainly have a sense of accomplishment for successfully collecting hits from three Scandinavian countries. Next, perhaps I can hope to attract representatives from all of Eastern Europe!?

On the other hand, I know that I have to be skeptical. For instance, I am afraid that my site might have gotten included in some Web page directory for men with Asian fetishes. One person with multiple international accounts has been checking out the site frequently, but has been trying to do so in a way that doesn't arouse suspicion.

Perhaps I'm overreacting, but these possibilities do exist. It's otherwise very hard for me to figure out why the viewers are from such a wide range of countries.

By putting up a personal Web page (not to mention writing about my life every week) I've obviously identified myself as a slight exhibitionist. And by viewing my site, a bunch of strangers have revealed to me that they are slight voyeurs.

However, this is not the end of the story. By knowing what countries they are from, I know I hold a kind of power over these anonymous viewers.

Granted, the viewers probably know that they are leaving digital footprints — a paperless paper trail -- all over the place, and perhaps wish to be "found out," too. Of course, the big question is how all these people stumbled across my Web site. I can't think of any data analysis I can do to find the answer.

Shukan ST: March 2, 2001

(C) All rights reserved