At its best, the Internet serves as a means of connecting people with different ideas, cultures and people from all over the world.
We had a perfect example of that here in the Computer Lab last week. An adult was trying to talk to her brother through Microsoft's Live Messenger, but wasn't having any luck because her brother didn't have an "@live.com" or "@hotmail.com" email address.
A CLC staff member suggested using Skype, an internet-based chat and phone call service. Skype charges money to makes calls from a computer to a landline or cellphone, but doesn't charge for internet-to-internet chats or "phone" calls.
Using a microphone available in the CLC, this adult was able to speak to and hear the voice of her brother, who was literally thousands of miles away. Skype is wonderful technology (and free to download), and allowed her to have a real-time conversation with a family member that, according to her, she hadn't seen in over seven years!
That's just the magic of the Internet, huh?
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