24 Hours in Cyberspace (February 8, 1996) was "the largest one-day online event" up to that date, headed by photographerRick Smolan with Jennifer Erwitt, Tom Melcher,Samir Arora andClement Mok.[1][2][3] The project brought together the world's top 1,000 photographers, editors, programmers, and interactive designers to create a digital time capsule of online life."[1]
24 Hours in Cyberspace was an online project which took place on the then-active website,cyber24.com (and is still online at amirror website maintained byGeorgia Tech).[4][5] At the time, it was billed as the "largest collaborativeInternet event ever", involving thousands of photographers from all over the world, including 150 of the world's topphotojournalists.[6][7] ThenSecond LadyTipper Gore was one of its photographers.[8] In addition, then Vice President of the United StatesAl Gore contributed the introductory essay to theEarthwatch section of the website.[9] In this essay, he discusses the impact of theInternet on theenvironment,education, and increased communication between people.[10]
The goal was not to show pictures ofwebsites andcomputermonitors, but rather images of people whose lives were affected by the use of the growing Internet. Photographs were sent digitally toeditors working real-time to choose the best pictures to put on the project's website.[5] The website received more than 4 million hits in the 24 hours that the project was active.[11]
24 Hours in Cyberspace served as a cover story forU.S. News & World Report.[12]
The technological infrastructure of the project was provided by a startup company spinoff fromApple Computer namedNetObjects that was founded bySamir Arora, David Kleinberg,Clement Mok and Sal Arora. The system supplied by NetObjects allowed Smolan's international network of editors and photojournalists to submit text and images through web forms; it ran onUnix, relied on a database for content storage (Illustra) and used templating for easy and near-instantaneous page generation that obviated the need for the site's editorial staff to have any coding skills.[2] NetObjects was first to create the technology that would enable a team of the world's top picture editors and writers to become instant Web page designers. It let them do what they do best—edit and write—and automatically generate finished, sophisticated Web pages that millions of people were able to see only minutes after they were designed. Three million people clicked onto the 24 Hours site; the blaze of publicity surrounding the 24 Hours in Cyberspace project helped NetObjects raise $5.4 million in venture capital.[13]
The project reportedly cost as much as$5 million, and was funded with assistance from 50 companies, mostly in the form of loans ofcomputer hardware andtechnology experts.Adobe Systems,Sun Microsystems andKodak were listed as major supporters.[11][14]
A companion book byRick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt was published in 1996. It contains two hundred photographs from the over 200,000 which were taken on that day. It also contains a CD with the full contents of the original website.[15][16]
A photographic exhibition was unveiled at theSmithsonian Institution'sNational Museum of American History on 23 January 1997, featuring 70 photos from the project by the 24 Hours in Cyberspace team,Rick Smolan, Jennifer Erwitt,Samir Arora,Clement Mok and Vic Zaud.[17] It was introduced by thenVice PresidentAl Gore[18][19] who was also given a copy of the book and CD.[1]
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