This is Internet On The Air. I am Todd Mundt. What would Thomas Jefferson think about the Internet? Details in a moment.

Funding Credit: Internet On The Air is a production of the University of Michigan School of Information and Michigan radio, made possible by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Thomas Jefferson once said that information is the currency of democracy. While Jefferson was always curious about new technology, he never could have imagined how citizens of the Internet Age would interpret his words.

A souvenir coin with Jefferson's philosophical message is given to all visitors to the Grand Rapids Community Media Center. The Center is an experiment in democracy designed to help people with no technological background produce and distribute programs over community access television, a radio station, and a computer network. Among its successful experiments is the training of so-called Web Jockeys. Web jockeys are modeled after radio disc jockeys...except they host shows on community access TV and surf the Internet to answer questions posed by call-in viewers.

The Grand Rapids Community Media Center is now reaching out overseas. Its developer is part of a team working on a giant Web site to help people in Europe and the U.S. learn about international exchange programs.

The first people to receive Thomas Jefferson's message about democracy may have been gathered around a town square. Today, his philosophy has been adopted by those pursuing the concept of a global village.

To learn more about the Grand Rapids Media Center and other civic-minded Internet projects, visit our Website at www.iota.org. For Internet On The Air, I'm Todd Mundt.