The Web’s Current Utility
47
As mentioned in a previous chapter, Berners‐Lee’s first Web browser was besides a browser also a hypertext‐editing tool, meaning that scien‐
tists could use it to publish and take presence on the Web from the very beginning; or rather, they were supposed to. And whereas we have seen how several new utilities have dramatically improved the utility of the Web as an information resource: as a publishing medium, the Web hasn’t changed that much. In the following paragraphs we will discuss the means that are currently available for publishing to the Web. First, we bring up personal Web pages, the most traditional way. After that, we look at a new generation of personal Web pages that has only recently come about but really seems to be assuming an important place, namely: Blogs. And last, we look at the role that communities play in this respect. Other utilities that allow users to publish, but more as a means of direct interaction with other users, fall under the Web’s role as conversation and collaboration medium, which is discussed afterwards. 3.2.1 Personal Web Pages
Since the first day of the Web’s existence, it was possible for user’s to publish information (creator Tim Berners‐Lee himself being the first one to do so, of course). To be more precise, scientists could publish their thoughts and findings on their personal server space, in the form of hypertext pages, to keep their colleagues up‐to‐date on their activities: they could create, indeed, their own personal Web pages. Throughout the nineties, as the Web popularized over the entire world, more and more people (no longer just scientists) created their own Web pages; and at the same time, more and more people got access to the Web, as well, making it ever more interesting for someone to have a personal Web page. In fact, the nineties saw a real boom of personal Web pages. Coming back to the scientist, and knowledge workers in general, we see that the use of personal Web pages is still ‘hot’. Besides to keep 48
Prospects for the Web as an Interactive Knowledge Medium
colleagues up‐to‐date, they have come to be used for more general ends as well: resumes, opinions about various subjects, interests, private mate‐
rial, etcetera. A good example would be the Web page of professor Frank van Harmelen, displayed below (see figure 17). Figure 17
As a professor at the department of Computer Science at the University of Amsterdam, Van Harmelen uses his Web page for various PR and publishing ends: to promote a book he has written, to publish information about research he is involved in, about courses he teaches – even course material is included – and many other academic matters. Furthermore, his Web page contains contact information, his resume, a diary, things that he finds interesting in general, or that he finds amusing. He has also given his Web page a very personal character: not in matter of graphic design elements or special type or something alike, but by offering a navigation structure of grouped and connected globes, which is quite unusual, and very representative for some of the activities he is involved in.