I would agree totally that a multimedia environment is better than a
text based one for getting information across. Today that is via the
WWW. One of the problems with the web, which is Usenet's strong suit,
is that the information doesn't just come to me and I have to work to
find it's there and go get it. With Usenet that isn't the case. I wake
up in the morning, read my news and participate where I feel appropriate
and retrieve URL references that I find interesting or useful. In
other words, the two complement each other nicely. If this was totally
a web environment, people would have to re-invent Netnews.
The net is not the same place it was in 1983, 1987, 1990, 1993. It will
not be the same in two years as it is today. With the increase in consumer
bandwidth alot of possibilities open up.
# I welcome repositories such as <http://www.faqlib.com/> which contain
# FAQs in HTML (as opposed to FAQs converted to HTML from text). I
# believe repositories such as Kent's at
# <http://www.landfield.com/faqs/> are only a stop gap solution and will
# die a natural death. (Sorry Kent.)
Hey, no problem here. Funny thing is, I agree that it will be an all
HTML FAQ world in the future. ASCII will become a phrase no one ever
uses and few remember what it means... What I disagree with is your
inability to see this archive as an evolving network resource. ;-)
It was created to try to make FAQs more accessible and useful. To do
that today conversion into HTML was needed. In the future, conversion
won't be needed, timely linking/mirroring/searching will. Whatever the
case things will evolve.
# So, look to the future - write your FAQs in HTML and ignore the
# policies of the ISPs. In the long term, Usenet News is irrelevant to
# FAQs; their link is purely historical.
Here we differ. Not with the HTML FAQs as stated above but I don't see
Usenet News as being irrelevant to FAQs. Usenet has and will continue
to be the some inspiration for new and updated FAQs. It will also continue
to be most useful in alerting readers to the existence of timely information
concerning new or updated FAQs.
The two different models are complimentary. The Broadcast or Push model of
Usenet and the Pull model of the web offer the best of both worlds. They
will exist side by side for many years to come. It may however, become
difficult to be able to see the clear distinctions as we can today. The
evolving net will blur the lines as the two are integrated even tighter.
Our challenge is to be able to take advantage of the changes to pursue
the goal of getting high quality information to those that need it.
I'll step down off the soapbox now...
-- Kent Landfield Phone: 1-817-545-2502 The Landfield Group FAX: 1-817-545-7650 Email: kent@landfield.com http://www.landfield.com/ Please send comp.sources.misc related mail to kent@uunet.uu.net.
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