
Journalism
10. SMALLTOWN INTERNET
Save
me from the public lynch - cried out 31 years old teacher
of informatics, Zeljko Matic from the small place of Tucepi
near Makarska
on the Adriatic coast, when he found that directors
of the tourist communities of Brela and Baska voda, City Mayor
of Brela, police and a few citizens swooped down on him. Ongoing
pressure, telephone calls threatening all the possible troubles
that could embitter his life, all down to the misunderstanding
of his environs, including his own students - all of this,
however, didn't waver Zeljko Matic. He decided to keep ownership
over the commercial domains brela.com
and baskavoda.com,
which he bought two years ago. Learning that professor Zeljko
Matic possesses domains with names of their places, local
tourist workers, unfamiliar with computer technolo-gy and
domain spaces, thought that Zeljko Matic
steals their tourist
guests in that way. They asked him to 'erase' names of Brela
and Baska voda from his domains because 'those are protected
names that can be claimed only by the tourist community',
and also advised him 'to renounce ownership over something
not belonging to him'.
This case is symptomatic of the level of (mis) understanding
and informatics (il)literacy in our country, and is as much
essential as was the appearance of the first rented apartment
on our coast.
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