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IT'S almost a surreal experience visiting The Spot Web page.

  At first glance, it is hard to even know what The Spot is and what it is all about.

  Is it a television show gone cyberspace?   After all, when the first graphic imagemap comes up, the site looks remotely like an on-line episode of Beverly Hills 90210.

   Then again, second glances suggest something like an on-line novel with pointers to everything from recent history of the story to background facts and an entire newsgroup-like page about The Spot.

  But, that's not quite it.

  Is it an interactive novel? Maybe that's it.

  Yet somehow The Spot is none of these and all of these at the same time. According to promotional materials sent out before the launch of The Spot two weeks ago, the site was hailed as the 'world's first episodic web site'. But, what does that mean?   The Spot - which has adopted spots as its primary graphical motif - uses Hollywood actors, writers and production techniques featuring five attractive twenty-something people in a Santa Monica beach house which has been known for more than four decades as party central for the tinsel town elite.

   And a history has been developed for the house. One former owner is found drowned in the bathroom 'elegantly clad in a pink designer dress'.

  The five current inhabitants are 'intent on creating their own colourful histories with the help of Internet visitors'.

  The Spot combines video, audio, text and photos and will make the move to emerging technologies such as VRML (a mark-up language for virtual reality Web sites), real time audio and more.

  Creators of The Spot want Net citizens to help develop the storyline, so that it has an impact on the characters and the plot.

  The site itself makes extensive use of imagemaps and large graphic images so it may be too slow for many Hong Kong users to take advantage of.

  Still, it is worth visiting the site just for the images themselves which are well-designed for the Web and extremely professional.

  In addition, a lot of thought has been put into developing an interactive Web page which provides an excellent example of how the Web can take a step beyond simple hypertext links.

   After all the 'Spot Board' provides an excellent example of how to implement a threaded discussion group - much like a Usenet newsgroup - all using the now universal point-and-click technology of the World Wide Web.

  With emerging technologies such as Java from Sun Microsystems one can see this as the genesis of whole new interactive discussion formats using the Web.

  On top of which, The Spot provides an excellent example of the use of forms in the 'Spot Mail' segment.

  To use The Spot, users have several options.

  They can follow daily adventures by following the 'Fresh Spot' menu choice which brings up the latest entries from various users.

  The Backtrack button leads can allow users access to the last month's posts as well as navigating entries related to specific characters.

  In addition, there is an IRC chat room and a Myths and Legends button to find out about the past four decades of history related to the storyline.

  Ultimately, The Spot is trying to create a new form of interactive entertainment which is trying to bring together the best of television along with the interactive medium of the Web and many-to-many connection of the Internet.

  Whether it takes off will depend on user reaction.

  As the on-line introduction suggests, 'Don't rush through; probe and caress each new Spot for maximum satisfaction. Now get out there and boldly enjoy your first Spot experience.' 



The Spot brings some entertaining episodes