Why is the Web compelling?

We use pencils to write words, brushes to paint. We use cameras to take pictures, video cameras to make movies. When we use all these together we called it "multimedia." Seperately, any of these technologies can be used to tell a story, a literary composition. Multimedia changes what is writing. The Web is a multimedia writing space.

An artifact is an object produced or shaped by human craft. Documents are the artifacts of writing. Multimedia is the technology used to craft Web documents. The Web changes forever what to consider artifacts of writing.

Hypertext is the engine driving the Web. Hypertext is a retrieval system that enables writers to provide access to, and readers to gain information on, particular topics. Web servers are computers that implement hypertext systems. Every Web server computer can be seen as a library. Every Web document can be seen as a card catalog. Writing hypertext is programming information--it is an "Authoring System." The Web changes how information is organized. The Web changes how to and who has access to information.

Information is power. We live in the information age. Education is an industry, and learning is an occupation. The Web allows building of cooperative networks of information. Just like the printing press was the first machine of the Industrial Revolution, the Web is a machine of the Information Revolution.

The Web will change how information is valued. Most authors are paid for the act of writing. Metered Web servers will mean that authors can be paid for who and how often their information is accessed. !!!!!!!!!! More stuff goes here .....

Authoring Web documents is publishing. !!!!!!!!!! More stuff goes here .....

Reading Web docuemnts is writing. !!!!!!!!!! More stuff goes here .....

Web popularity is grass roots, not a business plan of some multi-national corportation. Started in 1989, growth of the Web exploaded in 1995. Since then Web server computers has doubled twice a year. !!!!!!!!!! More stuff goes here .....

For me, the Web changed my self image. In the course of one year, I transformed from a reder of books to a Web publisher--"it was a small step for man, and a giant leap for mankind." !!!!!!!!!! More stuff goes here .....

The Web has changed how we thnik about problems of all kinds. In the Information Age, educators will benefit more then others from this new insight. It will shake and probably break forever education's cast system. The distinction between students and teachers, and between readers, writers, authors and publishers will blur or disappear. Libraries will become museums.
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* some references to include ... AND links left to make.

George North is a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, University of New Orleans. He has a BS in Liberal Arts from State University of New York and a MS in Computer Science from the University of New Orleans. He is (for 30 years) a Software Engineer.
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