Web is a concept, not a program, a system, not even a specific protocol. It might be more accurate to call it an interface, or even a meta-interface (meta: (Greek) after; an interface that incorporates other interfaces). However, words with meta as a prefix went out of favor during the early nineties.Calling the World Wide Web a concept, however, does not actually answer the question of what the Web is and what previous technologies it uses. To due so we will look at three areas: Hypertext, Internet, and Multimedia. This will help us understand both the World Wide Webs past and future.Hypertext was introduced back in the seventies by the sometimes visionary, sometimes flaky, and always provocative Ted Nelson. 13 Hypertext is extremely simple. A hypertext document is one that provides clearly visible links to other documents in a hypertext computer environment. Selecting a link in one document moves you directly to another. Not entirely completed, it was Nelson’s vision to link all the world’s information in a huge hyperlink system.The Internet (Net)is a global system of networked computers that allows user-to-user communication and transfer of data files from one computer to any other on the network.Multimedia is the combination of presentational technologies in an effort to appeal to as many of our senses as possible, by drawing on graphics, sounds, animation, and video to create a full, rich computing experience.The World Wide Web has been described as a “network information delivery system” or “distributed information system." Neither really tells us what it is. Lets try this: “The World Wide Web is a convergence of computational technologies for presenting and linking information dispersed across the internet in an easily accessible way”. 4The World Wide Web contains the technologies necessary to give the Internet a pretty face. While certainly in need of further development, the Web lets in...
