The Nature of the Medium
The Web is a hypermedia environment.
Hypermedia occurs when multimedia information
is structured in a hyperlinked information
space. More on this, possibly far too much
The Web is platform-independent.
Platform independence means that the Web
can be accessed by a variety of devices. You
do not know how your site will be received,
or how it will be rendered. You do know that
your potential audience is large and diverse.
Some possible delivery platforms:
- Internet Explorer 5, on a PC running Windows
95, 98, NT, 2000; or on MacOS X or 9 or
8 or 7
- Netscape Navigator 4, under Windows, MacOS,
- Another version of Internet Explorer
or Netscape. For example, Windows 95 came
with IE3.0, and many technophobic CEOs have
never upgraded their browser. Netscape Navigator
6, rewritten from scratch and quite
different to Navigator 4, has recently been
- Another PC browser - for example, Opera,
iCab, OmniWeb, CyberDog, etc. Another PC
operating system - for example, OS2/Warp,
BeOS, Linux, *BSD...
- An internet appliance: WebTV, an AOL/HP
Crusoe WebPad, an iOpener, or an Alcatel
Webphone. Or an LG web-enabled refrigerator.
- A mobile phone, via WAP or TCP-IP
- A palmtop device - PalmOS, WindowsCE or
PocketPC, Symbion, EPOC, etc. Running AvantGo,
HandWeb, IE for CE etc.
- A text-only browser such as Lynx, or a
screen reader for the visually impaired.
- Something else.
All of these delivery platforms have different
attributes. Screen size and resolution, number
of colours, scripting capabilities, browser
idiosyncracies. The magic of the web is that
it can be accessed on just about anything.
Two things allow this to happen:
- Open Standards
- The separation of Content and Presentation
Both of these are ideals, imperfectly realised
but still useful.
and Presentation >>>