He defines wired as the general group of people who embrace evolving computer technology and welcomes it as a tool. The other group is the unwired , which he defines as those who are skeptical and even fearful of computers and do not want to be a part of progress. For society to develop as fully as possible, Carroll says the wired must work to better understand the people who do not have confidence in the quick-changing pace of technological advances. The popular image of the average Canadian who is not into this stuff is that the Internet is full of little boys looking at dirty pictures when they re not busy breaking into the Pentagon. These numbers completely displace that, said Jim Carroll, co-author of the Canadian Internet Handbook.
People signing on are normal, average, everyday people.
We ve got to help the person who s not part of this thing, who s not wired, get beyond their perception of who the average user is. They re all convinced that we re all cyber-dweeb losers, Carroll said. There s an implicit distrust. He s demystifying the Internet for Canadians. All told, he and writing partner Rick Broadhead have sold more than 400,000 copies of their books and in the fall of 1997, they released six new titles.