Bye Bye HyperText: The End of the World (Wide Web) As We Know It

[Gerry McKiernan]

                    Bye Bye Hypertext
      The End of the World (Wide Web) As We Know It!

    With the potential application of text extraction and
summarization, data mining, intelligent software agents, and
neural networks and other forms of AI, it has occurred to me
that we may be on the brink of the End of the World (Wide Web)
as We Know It.

    The potential of using an entire document or a corpus of documents
as the fundamental information source and not just tag or metatag data, may
may make the hypertext link as the conceptual relator to other documents
secondary. The hypertext link may take on less of an associative role
and more of a structural role.  In this New World (Wide Web) View, the
the contents and concepts of documents become primary, and the hypertext
link becomes secondary. The meaning of a document will derive from the
document and not from a symbolic substitute.

    Through Data and Information Visualization the concepts and
contents of a document will be presented to the user in a dynamic
3-D visual landscape, map, room, or cityscape that can be browsed
as naturally as one browses 'real space'.

    The World Wide Web is Dead! Long Live the World Wide Web! [:->]

    As always, any reactions, thoughts, comments, or support
for such musings will be very much appreciated.

    Regards,

Gerry McKiernan
Curator, CyberStacks(sm)
Iowa State University
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~CYBERSTACKS/

                            "Imagine"