SHARK BY MIKI THOMAS lyson Press released the “first edition of Jeff Dawson’s Gay & Lesbian Online web guide a couple of years ago. Frankly, it wasn’t all that impressive, especially in comparison with Out magazine’s slick Gay &. Lesbian Guide to the Web that came complete, with" CD- ROM. Gay & Lesbian Onlinén looked like its ‘poor cousin. lt commentary, just listings of Yahoo or some other search engine. — , ‘ -- years ,_cah make l Of ‘course,- ,_ .the web has grown consid- erably since the first edi- tion came out. As the size of the third edition of Gay & Lesbian Online seems to indicate, the GLBT community had a huge part to play in that ‘ growth. There are now a jaw-dropping 3300 web sites listed, deal- ing with everything from activism to travel. Dawson has organized the guide alphabetically by topic for easy ref- erence. The lists of web sites for each topic are further organized by country, state, or was a thin. "volume-' with ':little' web sites and chat rooms that , anyone coul_d:‘:-Z find .,usin’g,." What aldifference twiovi liar 8. lesbian nnline. 3'? . Dawson also puts in his two cents, giving opinions about some of the more popular and important sites on the web as well as online services such as America Online. His knowl- edge of GLBT history and cul- ture is impressive and allows the reader to respect his judgments regard- ing a particular site. This is an important feature, considering that web guides including GLBT sites are often written by those outside the communi- ty. Uninforrned opinions about a site are chiefly determined by popularity (“if it’s popular, it must be goodl”), not by whether it has any real worth in terms of edu- cational or entertainment value. Interestingly enough, the guide’s strengths — its size and completeness — are also its weaknesses. The lists are so long that they can be intimi- dating for a novice web surfer who know where to start. Dawson does address this to a degree with his clear descriptions of numerous search engines at the begin- ning of the guide. There is also the practical aspect to con- sider: it is difficult to . hold the book and type may not A Field Guide to the lam‘ wen an URL at the same time. Perhaps the fourth edition might come with a CD-ROM version with hyperlinks of all the URLs listed. Infonnation is power and the‘ Gay & Lesbian Online guide provides the definitive means for the GLBT commu- nity to tap into that power via cyberspace. Mark Your Calendars! Yes, I know it’s hard to think summer when there’s a ton of snow outside, but come June 19, it’ll be Pride Day once again. To find out more about this year’s celebration as well as reminisce about last year’s Pride, check out the offi- cial web page at http:// www.theatershoe.org. V The guide’s -~strengths — I9" nawson AWSIJII HESS gay and/or les- bian emphasis. '$‘,\ONT RNNBOW CON/V6 /0¢ ' THE T..V. SHOW BY, FOR AND ABOUT VERl“lONT'5 L/G/B/T COMMUNHTYV AND OUR SUPPORTERSI Sit back and enjoy our Feb. program filled with news, resouces and an informative interview with Barbara Dozetos, editor of OITM. listing of stations, times/days: - Adelphia (CH. 15) (Greater Burlington area) Fri 9pm Adelphia (CH. 15) (Montpelier, Waterbury, Randolph) 2nd & 4th Fri 7:30pm Lake Champlain (CH. 2) 1st & 2nd Mon 11pm and 1st & 2nd Wed. 10pm Helicon (CH. 7) (Barre) 2nd & 4th Mon 8:30pm BCTV (CH. 8) (Brattleboro) call 257-0888 for air days/time MMCTV (CH. 3)(Richmond, Jericho, Underhilli call 434-2550 for air days/time WENO (CH.15) (Enosburg, Berkshire, Richford) lst & 3rd Sun at 8pm CA-TV (Bennington, Pownal, Shaftsbury, Woodford, Hoosick Falls) call 442-8868 for air days/time ired of trying to find a queer section in your bookstore? We buy, sell, and locate ,OURBOOK& See our auctions on www.ebay.com SELLER ID: wordsrus wordsrus@to ether.net 802- 88-8298 For . confidenfiah HIV/AIDS; Information rz’§u’\/AA‘u2~LwAu’A‘\ r’&t./Ad‘: r}§v& Call 800-882-AIDS . <( “