Contrary to popular belief, Andy Williams '90 does not have the ability to arrange blind dates with the stars of NBC's hit sitcom "Friends."
By day, Williams, who is the manager of the Computer Resource Center, helps manage the College's information systems, while dealing with a daily flood of electronic-mail messages that come to him as College "Webmaster."
As "Webmaster," Williams oversees and maintains the College's World Wide Web computer servers and software, as well as the College's official home page on the Web.
From his office on the first floor of Kiewit Computation Center, Williams designed the College's home page. He is currently responsible for allocating space on the College's Web servers to other students and College groups.
Williams is also widely known as the man behind the popular "Friends" home page on Dartmouth's "geminga" web server.
Williams said the "Friends" home page, whose Universal Resource Locator is http://geminga.
dartmouth.edu/~andyjw/friends/, leads many Internet surfers to believe that Williams also helps produce the show.
"I've gotten mail from people saying, 'I think Jennifer Aniston is really cute; please tell her I said so,'" Williams said.
Another woman wrote Williams asking about Matthew Perry, shortly after Perry appeared on the cover of People Magazine.
Williams said the woman wrote, "I have a friend whose mission in life is to go out on a date with Matthew Perry. I realize that you don't actually know him, but I thought you might be able to tell one of the show's writers about my friend, and then they could pass it on to him."
Life of a Webmaster
But Williams does not only spend his time tracking the latest gossip about the stars of "Friends."
As the College's main link to the Internet, Williams spend hours a day responding to people's electronic-mail messages. He said he believes he gets so much mail "because people think [the Webmaster's] the place to send all their questions."
Williams receives questions regarding everything from computer-related questions to requests for College applications. Williams replies to all the questions, but often with pre-written form answers. "It's hard to be in-depth," he said.
If Williams personally responded to the hundreds of e-mail messages he receives, he said his wrists would go numb from typing.
But Williams said he tries to make up for his lack of personal touch with his thorough and meticulous home page, which he titled "The Nexus."
"I think it's an accurate portrayal," Williams said of his personal Web site.
"Originally, it was a single page with many links," Williams said. "Now it's all about me, with less extensions."
Williams said he feels his home pages are useful "because many people see computers as cold, non-personal objects, or don't see the people at Kiewit as real people."
He said he tried to use his web page to change those misconceptions. "I like humanizing things," he said. "I like to give some three-dimensionality to it."
Williams' office has a similar human feel. The door to his office is plastered with pictures of penguins in various poses. Skis rest vertically in one corner. In addition, a can of Spam graces the top of one of the four working computer monitors in the room.
Williams' home page covers the details of his life -- ranging from a copy of his resume to pictures of himself in a mud mask.
"As I built [the Web site] up," he said. "I was at a point in my life where I was working out who I was. I used the Web pages to discover who I was, where I was going and what I was doing."
Some of the more interesting features of his home page include a collection of journal entries and pictures of his two cats, Robin Goodfellow and Sebastian Napoleon Bonaparte Bartholomew McGill-ikitty II.
Underneath the picture of the cats, the text explains they look like a Yin-Yang symbol when they fight. And for those people who are really interested, Williams has uploaded a picture of the remains of their scratching post.
"I want to teach"
Williams graduated from the College five years ago with a degree in Computer Science modified with Education.
Although he said Computer Science classes taught him "a lot about Macs and the inner workings of computers," he really enjoys the teaching aspect of his position.
Williams teaches Internet courses at Kiewit and is a "semi-quasi-teaching assistant" for Engineering 4: The Technology of Cyberspace.
"Ultimately," Williams said, "I want to teach."
He said he is looking forward to starting his graduate studies in the fall of 1996 and is hoping to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab.
"My goal is to be a teacher on some level -- not just a computer professor, but someone who deals with larger issues while using computers to enhance education," he said.
Williams said he gets a lot of practice teaching by answering the many questions he receives from College users.
While many of the dilemmas may seem like simple problems to an experienced user, he said he can sympathize with those who are not familiar with their computers.
"I'm the same way about my car," he said. "I don't know the details of how it works. Most of the questions I get are from people who are new and don't understand things about their computers. They're not stupid, just naive."
Far from being an unknown on campus, Williams said he has achieved a bit of renown.
"I knew I'd achieved fame here when a frat called me and said they were looking for Dartmouth personalities to sit in their dunking booth," he said. "They wanted me to be one of the people who got dunked."
