The Web has artists, writers, grassroots political organizations, teachers, students, and just about everyone with Internet access jumping for joy -- and their HTML guides. With a new opportunity to become an information channel, people are taking their ideas to the Web, where Jane Q. Publiq has as large a potential audience as Time/Warner. Radio started out the same way, with scores of amateur enthusiasts pushing the limits of technology using homemade devices. Then corporate America got into the act and what was once an interactive, two-way medium, was quickly homogenized into a vehicle for advertisers. With business scrambling to establish a presence on the Web, the prospect of secured transactions and the ever-increasing instances of traditional billboard-type advertising, the time draws nigh when independent content providers might have to struggle to get their content out there.

But for now, the Web is what you make it. For people who don't have the ready-made templates provided by AOL, Compuserve or Prodigy -- or aren't satisfied with what they're getting from the Big Three commercial services -- there are several resources on the Net that will help you get started and will support you once you're well on your way.

First, you have to determine whether your Internet service provider will allot you space on their server for your homepage and if you have to pay a premium. After that's all straightened out, you're ready to proceed. A great way to learn about Web page authoring, and about the Web itself, is to take Thomas P. Copley's Make the Link Workshop, a six week distance-learning workshop conducted entirely by email. The next course begins on September 25 and is well worth the $20 it will cost you. Along with weekly tutorials and technical notes, Copley answers questions from workshop participants and distributes them to the whole group. To sign up for the Make the Link Workshop, send an email message to majordomo@arlington.com and in the body of the message, type: SUBSCRIBE LINKS2.

Of course, the Web is full of free resources that you can use to learn about homepage publishing. One of the best is Web 66, a comprehensive homepage with easy-to-understand explanations of various aspects of HTML editing and a lot of great links to shareware applications that will help you display graphics and get your page wired for sound. The World Wide Web Consortium, run by MIT in collaboration with CERN labs in Switzerland, the original developers of the Web, has scads of information about the latest Web developments as well as a huge library of reference materials for Web page publishers of all levels.