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III. Communication goes future What does the Internet hold for the future?
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With respect
to the goal to increase the efficiency of co-operation via Internet,
two interconnected aspects will gain significance in the future: the
possibility to link information (hypertext) as well as its reliable
availability.
It will only be possible to integrate information sustainably in a
continuously developing knowledge environment and thus turn it into a
knowledge resource which is usable on a long-term basis by considering
the above mentioned aspects. This is rarely possible in the Internet
due to the momentariness of information.
The possiblity to link information and its reliable availability are
also essential to Internet communication because efficient knowledge
exchange requires the possibility to quote information and reference
other information sources as it is naturally done in printmedia.
A major cultural change which will be caused by the Internet relates to
our understanding of text. In the future, text will be mainly published
online in hypertext format. Contrary to the linear creation of content
known in printmedia, individual pieces of information are connected via
references (link) forming a network. This way, complex, dynamicly
changing pieces of content can be connected without nearly any
redundancies resulting in an associative structure ressembling human
thinking behavoir.
Subsequently, contrary to the current situation, the motto context
instead of volume will apply more and more often in the future when
working with digital information. Island solutions will be avoided.
During the creation of information, the usability for others will be
considered.
A major precondition for the contextualization of information and thus
for the creation of hypertext is the guaranteed availability of data.
In order to put created text into context with external information, as
is the case when integrating specific information in one's own text, it
is necessary to ensure that references will function continuously.
At present, these preconditions are not fulfilled in the Internet yet.
Dead links (links to wrong or unavailable information) are the order
of the day. At the moment, information on the Internet ressembles a
phantom which disappears and changes continuously. Due to the
increasing significance of the Internet to the co-operation of
knowledge workers, it can be anticipated that solutions to the problem
will be found. Several approaches already exist. On a small scale,
integrated link management systems are a remedy.
In general, it can be assumed that specific functionalities will be
less important when it comes to choosing a software system. Instead,
the ability to adapt to a dynamic environment, system-independent
content and concepts for the availability of information will be
emphasized.
The biggest obstacle to a general and natural work with hypertext is
certainly the enormous difference to the creation and reception of
linear texts in which human kind has centurylong experience. The
retrieval of informatin or the navigation in hypertexts consitutes new
challenges to the indiviual which he or she might not be up to. It is
necessary to learn a new cultural technique.
A further futur topic relevant to knowledge work is the development of
the semantic web, an initiative which has been created in 1998 by Tim
Burners-Lee the inventor of the World Wide Web. In the future,
information will be provided with meaning which will be clearly
readable and understandable by machines. Huge advantages can be
anticipated for the retrieval of information. It will not only be
possible to search for specific terms, which possibly have several
meanings (e.g. bank). Instead, it will be possible to rely on the
support of intelligent machines which put similar information from
different sources into context.
Apart from semantic search, it can be anticipated that the dimensions
space and time will be increasingly considered. This postulates that
information on the Internet is provided with location data and a
timestamp. It will be possible to relate information to a certain
location which will be of utmost importance for developing plans or
discussing about geographical topics with the help of a map.
By providing information with a timestamp, an answer to the currently difficult question What was new in 1999? is provided.
You can download the complete article here:
 "Communication goes Europe - new paths in the web" (PDF, 624kB)
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