So, what is this MySpace profile about? It's about helping people learn how much they can do themselves, with just a little study--fun study, I think.

One of the most fun things about having your own web site, whether it's a site on MySpace, another social networking site, or your own web domain, is making the site look the way you want it to look, and even making it do the things you'd like it to do (through animations, video, games, etc.).

People who are teens and young adults today are by far the most tech-savvy "generation" ever. It makes sense, because computers and technology have been part of your lives for the entire time you've been alive. This wasn't the case for older people. So, doing things online is much more natural for younger people than it ever was (or perhaps ever can be?) for older people, who were introduced to computers and online interaction only after they became adults.

What I've noticed, though, is that while younger people naturally know a lot about technology, they don't always seem to know how much they actually know. They often don't realize that all the cutting and pasting and navigating the web to find codes and images and tones and videos, all the downloads, all the interactions required to download songs onto their MP3 players--all of this interaction with and manipulation of computers is actually a kind of computer "programming." You are taking actions that send a communication to the computer, the computer receives your communication and executes the command, returning to you (if you performed the steps correctly and if the server isn't temporarily overloaded) the information or image or other item that you requested, or confirmation that the action you requested was successfully carried out (or not).

What is "programming"?

This type of detailed interaction with software (your web browser, downloadable music software, ...) that records your "commands" and interfaces with computers to preform the required task is, in my mind, a kind of computer "programming". It requires the same things programming using computer languages requires:

• attention to detail;
• ability to execute the steps of a procedure defined in a specific (but sometimes editable) logical order;
• knowledge a set of commands that form the "words" or basic building blocks for creating commands;
• ability to assess and interpret the results that are returned after the command has been executed (or failed to execute)

If you can do all of this--navigating complex sets of web pages using mouse-clicks, entering data into web forms, sometimes cutting and pasting text from one web page into another, clicking buttons, making selections using pull-down menus and radio buttons, sometimes clicking a preview button and viewing the predicted results, clicking  buttons to submit your data, then evaluating the actual result, and deciding what action is required next--it's really not that big of a step into writing your own HTML and CSS codes.

A goal of this MySpace profile is to help you take that step, by teaching some fundamentals, through blog entries and postings in forums and groups, and by pointing you to useful resources. For example, the list of O'Reilly books on the left of this profile page was selected specifically for this purpose.

As a modern teen or young adult, you already do a lot of what I would call "programming"--in everything from customizing your MySpace page to configuring your cell phone to managing the music you have stored on your MP3 player. If you find these types of activity interesting, if you like cool effects, you'll probably find what you can create using a small number of HTML and CSS commands fascinating. If you'd like to give it a try, stay tuned!