One man in another country tracked down my father hundreds of miles out to sea on a ship simply by knowing how to use Internet. ** Upon arriving at Mr. Price's office we met not only with Mr. Price, but also with editor and senior reporter of one of nation's two major newspapers, The Belize Times http://www.belizetimes.bz

Apparently my parent's return after 40 years rated quite a news story since Peace Corps and similar organizations played a vital role in helping fledgling nation take hold.

When I asked if we could get a copy of article, reporter told me it would appear on Internet next week!

It turns out they not only publish their newspaper in print, but also publish most of each edition online so friends of Belize all over world can keep up with current events.

These dedicated newspaper people manage to publish an entire weekly newspaper and distribute content not only nationally, but internationally via Internet.

They literally use power of Internet to influence course of an entire nation.

Even more amazing, information technology allows them to do it all without a huge staff or massive budget.

But to bring it back to a more personal level, upon arriving back at port to catch our ship, our tour guide handed me her card and said, "Here's my card. When you or your friends come back to Belize, email me and we'll make all arrangements for you."

Wow!

Now that's power and reach of Internet to impact people's lives on so many levels and draw us all closer together as one global community - one person at a time.

At this point, imagination seems to represent only limitation as far as what you can do to teach people through Internet using this technology.

Currently, large corporations and independent speakers and entrepreneurs seem to represent majority of web casting users.

I believe this comes from fact that people simply don't know about it yet and don't understand how to use it.

Once that changes, web casting will go a long way towards replacing tele-conferencing as preferred means of long- distance education.

In future, as costs decrease even further, you will find people using web casting for everything from online family reunions and sales presentations, to home-based cooking shows and pay-per-view seminars. As technology improves, potential uses will skyrocket.

As with any new technology, a few drawbacks exist.

Though web casting works with modem speeds as low as 28K, no one standard has emerged for broadcasting content.

Some services require Real Player, while others require Microsoft's media player, and, as usual, Mac users often get left out in cold without any options.

Right now, search engine giant Google.com rates best source of information on how to offer your own web cast. Simply log on to Google, search for "webcast," and investigate ever-growing number of available resources.

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