I'm always intrigued by the early internet. The increasing use of the internet in the late 90's was the beginning of one of the fastest, most monumental changes in history but in the moment, not many could have predicted how much it affects us today. The early days of online interaction and creative collaboration were so simple, yet provide such a great window into understanding how people were using this new technology when it first came out.
This article way published in May of 2000, so the history of internet art was significantly shorter than it is today. It covers the happenings of the five years before it well, but in 2022, only a few examples given in the article seem like they contribute directly to today's digital art scene. (One topic that did seem to stand the test of time, however, was Heritage Gold -prejudiced software and AI is still a very relevant issue 22 years later)
Regardless of the fact that the article was published 22 years ago, I still appreciate how informative it is on a variety of the most influential happening of the early internet era. In our increasingly fast-paced society, it's easy for influential things from the past to get forgotten as time goes on. This reading helped me understand this time period a little better and I appreciate the variety that the internet displayed even before it truly took off.