Germany _is_ different from the USA. Germans - both native and migrant - have a different mindset. Including me :)

Do you also do systems administration?

James Schmitz' ComWeb is a sort of Multimedia Internet. His stories are currently reprinted by Bean Books. The ComWeb system is used in Schmitz "Hub" Universe, which is covered in vol. one to four ("Telzey Amberdon", "TnT: Telzey and Trigger", "Trigger & Friends" and "The Hub: Dangerous Territory").

There's a web site covering Schmitz, as well as Randall Garrett and Howard L. Myers: . Don't miss Guy Gordon's essay "That certain something", to quote him: 'Here is Schmitz, in 1970, describing business being done "on internet time".'. In "TnT" there's an additional sentence, missing in the online essay: 'And his "ComWeb" may be the best presagement of the Internet in all of science fiction.'.

Those stories are a good read, even if you don't use them for your course;)

Robert