Spanning generations: Senior finds new world on the Internet

You're never too old to surf.

At 64, retired UP train dispatcher Bernie Braasch is breaking through the stereotype of seniors as technologically impaired individuals who have to have 10-year-olds program their VCRs for them.

"I make sure I make time to get on the Internet and explore every day," Braasch said. "The more I learn here, the more I'm finding out I want to learn."

In what may be the only recorded instance of a video game leading to any sort of intellectual betterment, Braasch's journey into cyberspace was prompted by Super Mario Brothers about three years ago.

"I was over at my daughter's," Braasch said, "and her children were playing Nintendo, and they had gotten to levels on Super Mario that I hadn't."

His granddaughter offered to help. He was not amused.

"Here she is, 7 or 8 years old, saying, 'Grandpa, I'll come over and give you lessons, if you want.'"

He gave away his Nintendo and decided to start exploring computers. Three months after the conversation with his granddaughter, he got under way with the help of Tim Franssen and Larry LaShell of Insight Solutions.

"He had a computer that was too small and too slow to get out on the Internet, so the first thing we did was upgrade his computer," LaShell said.

LaShell said he doesn't see many seniors taking an interest in the Internet.

"He's pretty much an exception," he said. "Most of them don't anything to do with the Internet. Bernie's not one to sit still for anything. He's always looking for something different."

For a couple of years, Braasch worked only on the Freenet, a local bulletin board system. Only later did he hear about the latter. "I was deathly afraid of the Internet at first," he said.

A visit to Net Quest, he said, answered many of his questions and calmed most of his fears.

"They were running a promotion at the time, too, which helped me decide," he said.

When you push a child into a swimming pool, the child may complain and thrash around for a bit, but soon the joy of swimming overcomes that initial fear. So it was with Bernie and the Internet.

"It's a great, great learning tool ó it's exceptional what I'm finding," he said. "I can go visit San Francisco on the computer, go to the art museum," he said.

Or go across the world.

"I don't know how I did it, but I got onto a website in Tokyo, Japan. I didn't really feel like I belonged there. I got out of there and got back home."

He has also discovered a number of sweepstakes at various sites. "I like sweepstakes," he said.

Thus far, Braasch has either asked his more computer-literate friends for assistance or just figured things out on his own. "I was going to go to college and take a course on computer science and really learn how to do all this stuff, and I was talking to some friends, and they said, 'You're doing pretty good as it is. Why don't you just keep going as you are?'"

He is still considering taking some classes. Sometimes, he said, his friends speak freely in overly technical jargon, forgetting that he hasn't reached that level of understanding.

"I still kind of hunt and peck. I don't have the confidence of people who have gone to school," he said. "Basically, all I know is, don't hit delete and I'll be all right."

Despite his enthusiasm about surfing the Internet, he said hosting a Webpage didn't interest him.

"I don't feel I'm qualified for that. I don't have anything to sell anymore. I ... I'm real leery about it. I don't want to have anything to do with that."

The North Platte Telegraph Online

"We're going to deliver news and information in a way that has never been delivered to people in North Platte," Web designer Frank Graham said.

The Telegraph Online is a site on the World Wide Web located at www.nptelegraph.com. It doesn't include everything that the regular Telegraph does. Stories and pictures done by local people are posted on it, but nationally syndicated columnists and copy taken from sources such as The Associated Press are not.

Putting the paper online allows The Telegraph to do some things that the regular version makes unfeasible or impossible. Speed is obviously one of the biggest advantages of the Internet, a point ably demonstrated by The Telegraph Online during election night.

Up to now, television has been able to blow away print journalism on Election Night with speed, but just as Samuel Colt made everyone in the West equal, the Web is giving print a huge leg up.

Ballot results were posted on The Telegraph Online seven or eight hours before the average reader might pick up the morning paper.

"What we discovered with the test on Election Night is that we could deliver the same information the broadcast did with the same immediacy, but in a clearer, more concise, lasting presentation," Graham said.

"It's the print medium at the speed of broadcasting," Graham said.

But a broadcast image is fleeting. An Internet page is not.

"It's just like a newspaper, where you can save it and look at it later. You can come back to it. You can consume that information when you need to consume it," Telegraph Publisher Larry Shearer said.

Online also has the advantage of flexibility. The Telegraph's deadline is near midnight; when the paper goes out, it's set in stone. If breaking news occurs a few minutes after the paper is printed and out the door, the online version can be updated instantly.

Shearer said he was excited about the interaction with the public that the Internet offers.

"We will be able to offer access to the reporters, to the publisher, to the advertising staff in a way people have never had," Graham said. "We plan to have a 'Meet the Sports Editor' forum, a 'Meet the Publisher' forum, etc."

Graham insisted that you don't have to be a high-level computer programmer to enjoy and understand The Telegraph Online. "This story's just one click away. You don't have to jump through hoops. Boom! There's the editorial. Boom! There's the story," he said.

The Telegraph Online can't reach nearly as many North Platte citizens because not many of them have the necessary computer equipment, but Graham expects that will change before not too long.

"We feel the growth will be exponential. Access will be cheaper and easier and faster," he said.

Shearer said that the number of people online in North Platte has more than tripled in the last year.

The interest is out there. Graham said the site has been averaging 25 hits ó the number of times the site is accessed ó per hour with minimal promotion.

"We ran that one editorial," he said.

Shearer said The Telegraph began actively working on its online version about a year ago.

"We've actually been online for a couple of months. We've been experimenting with different formats," he said. "I think we're way ahead of schedule. A year ago, we didn't envision providing what we're able to provide today."

He said the technology of the Internet matches the technology of the newspaper quite closely.

"For us to adapt to the Internet was actually a natural progression," he said.

Shearer rejected the notion that the Internet is about to put a stake in the heart of newspapers. "I wouldn't see that happening certainly within the next 10 years," he said. "Online can't compete with our core product, which is the regular Telegraph. It's an added value. Even with all the advances in electronic delivery, the demand for the printed version has increased just as much."

Besides, Shearer said, a newspaper is much easier to carry around than a computer.