TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Long vs. Short Web pages From:jankwig <jankwig -at- PANIX -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 1 Nov 1995 19:20:24 -0500
On Wed, 1 Nov 1995, Kris Olberg wrote:
> In a message dated 95-10-29 09:35:34 EST, nhoft -at- ITECH -dot- MV -dot- COM (Nancy Hoft)
> writes:
> >You didn't provide any information about your company and what
> >products/services it offers so it's hard to recommend additional ideas here.
> >But keep in mind that the WWW is NOT a platform exclusively for marketing
> >and sales. It's a platform for sharing information (FOR FREE!). It's about
> >CONTENT!!!
> This comment raises an interesting question. What does the future hold for
> the Web? Will it continue to be a vehicle for content, will its emphasis
> shift toward advertising, or will it become an amalgam of both?
It also shows (and I *do not* mean this to sound condescending, but now
that I've typed that it probably will be viewed as such :-( ) a good
amount of naivite. Sharing information "FOR FREE" may have been the glint
in DARPA's eye many years ago, but the times they have-a-changed.
I don't think anyone could argue that the Web is not a logical place for
advertising, anymore than you could argue that newspapers should be handed
out or free just because they were when they were first invented.
No, I am not an advertiser. I am an academic, and was using the 'net "for
free" as some might say for many years before the web was even available;
hence, one might think I'd be appalled by commerce on web pages; but since
the net and web and everything else on the i-way are nothing more than virtual
representations of what already exists right now.....that is, life......then
I'm prepared to put up with the chaff as well as the wheat.
Better this than some kind of counterproductive notion that anything can
exist in a capitalist society "for free."