World Wide Web servers and their various clients (NCSA Mosaic,
Cello, MacWeb, NetScape, Lynx, and the like) have been the hottest
thing on the red-hot Internet for over a year now. They already
account for over 10 percent of the traffic on the Internet, and in the
next two to three years they likely will grow to account for more
traffic than do voice calls on the telephone network. Web weavers
and dancers have already changed forever the look and feel of the
Internet, and the expectations that untold numbers of users bring to
networking. They have also made it abundantly clear that it no
longer takes a propeller-head high on Double-Stuff Oreos and
Mountain Dew to use the Internet to develop and access multiple
networked information products and services that contain graphics,
sounds, moving images, and other non-textual elements in addition
to text. Adults as well as elementary and secondary school children
can now develop and access such things.
Web weavers and dancers are also giving real meaning to a
new network metaphor, the metaphor of the Internet as a web. It is
a metaphor that says much more about how the content of the
Internet is organized than it does about how the conduit of the
Internet is engineered. This emphasis on the content and deemphasis
of the conduit at such a basic metaphorical level is more important
than has been commonly realized, at least to date. To the degree that
network users think of content first and conduit second, if at all, they
will be more inclined to develop network applications than they will
be to talk (or worry) about network technologies, topologies, and
performances or about other distractions occasioned by the coverage
of the information hype-way. A change of this sort in user behavior
is very much in the interest of imagining as well as inventing the
future of networks and networked information.
For these and many other reasons, World Wide Web servers
and clients are now commonly regarded as constituting the first
killer application of the Internet. But I prefer to regard them as
constituting the first birther application; after all, these servers and
clients have initiated rather than terminated (as killer suggests) a
major new phase of growth in the Internet community. It is
impossible to predict what the next birther application will be or
when it will emerge. It is a safe bet, though, that this application will
spring forth from the wired rather than from the tired subjects and
ideas of the Internet community.
The tired subjects and ideas, no matter how important they
may be for existing Internet products and services, tend to absorb
more energy than they radiate. The wired ones, on the other hand,
no matter how difficult it is to pin them down, tend to radiate more
energy then they absorb. Increased returns on investments on
existing products and services come from the tired subjects and
ideas; new (breakthrough) products and services come from wired
ones. For instance, the subject of the information highway is tired,
but the still rapidly evolving reality of the Internet is wired. Anyone
who is talking about the information highway without proving
concepts and otherwise contributing value to the Internet should
wake up and smell the huevos rancheros: we no longer live in a
world ruled by publish or perish, we live in one ruled by demo or
die.
The construction of the physical networking conduit is also a
tired subject, whereas the social construction of networking content
is a wired one. And, strategies and tactics for building long distance
networking circuits is a tired subject, whereas strategies and tactics
for delivering value across the last mile of existing networks is a
wired one. The most successful strategies for getting across that last
mile are those that are the best at reformulating the three most
significant variables in the information value equation:
the content variable, which covers the specific products and
services that you offer;
the context variable, which covers the ways by which you
provide access to your products or services, often together with
other, related products and services; and,
the infrastructure variable, which covers the mechanisms you
use to actually deliver your products or services. The second
variable, the context variable, is the wired one. It is the one that is
most often missing or underestimated in the many, many networked
information projects that fail to measure up to the expectations that
people originally had for them.
The creation and management of documents in the Internet
environment is a tired topic; the creation and management of
products and services that facilitate productive and enjoyable
behaviors is a wired one. Using the Internet to access and consume
products and services provided by other folks is a tired topic; using
the Internet to create and operate products and services that you
want other folks to consume is a wired one. Developing products and
services because the Internet is way cool is a tired approach;
developing products and services because the Internet is getting
good enough to use is a wired one. Most Internet users have had
enough of high function, low value tools, resources, and services, and
they are going to handsomely reward developers who focus on
enhancing the value rather than increasing the functionality of their
tools, resources, and services.
Finally, thinking only in terms of how to protect intellectual
property on the Internet is a tired approach; thinking in terms of
how to leverage existing Internet property to create new products
and services is a wired one. Publishers in particular are challenged
by the intriguing notion, which many of them are now squarely
facing, that the biggest threat that they see in the Internet
environment just may be the thing that will some day be thought of
as their most important new business opportunity. Cooperation,
particularly cooperation on standards and other aspects of
interoperability, has relatively recently emerged as a practical
strategy for coping with this fascinating prospect. Cooperation may
be an unnatural act performed in the publicity of the Internet
environment, but strategies that rely upon standards and
interoperability are becoming wired while strategies that rely upon
proprietary solutions and captive customers are becoming tired. The
birther applications of the Internet environment will for some time
to come be those that enhance the collaborative rather than the
competitive advantages of individual Internet users and groups. This
is perhaps the most telling lesson of the success of World Wide Web
servers and clients: the Internet community grows fastest and surest
when it moves forward along a broad, loosely coupled front. The next
birther application, no matter when it comes or where it emerges,
will definitely be the one that enables and then defines the next
stage in that process.
TIRED
Information Highway
physical construction
long distance
content and infrastructure
documents
consumption
way cool
WIRED
internet
social construction
last mile
context
behaviors
creation
good enough to use
property leverage
collaboration