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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