Re: WWW Strengths & Weakness

t.m.owen%BANGOR.AC.UK@vm.ucs.UAlberta.CA
Tue, 6 Jun 1995 16:18:27 BST 

A real advantage to those of us who speak and teach through a minority language
 is how cheap it is to publish on the Internet using the WWW. With some skill
 and design ability professional looking resources can be had by all.

Material in a language like Welsh is hard to come by so we have to do our own
 publishing (even for non-distant students).

I have a concern that from  my informal observations of WWW users is the
 swiftness that the eye scans the pages. In most cases this is entirely
 understandable. There is a lot of junk out there, however I wonder if the sheer
 volume of lightweight material on the Web drags down the rest?

I am a victim myself. Large fields of text can be daunting on screen, but quite
 pleasurable when between two pieces of flexible card.

Bandwidth will only be a short term problem I am sure, but increasing bandwidth
 means that we should increase our production values.

Web browsers  should soon deviate from each other rather than being a linear
 development. Is there anyone looking or thinking about the development of Web
 browsers under OLE or OpenDoc?  There is a potential for a whole family of
 browsers. Somebrowsers could be optimised for shopping or other domestic
 purposes like cash transfer. Other browsers could be optised for interaction of
 a textual or audio visual manner. I would like a one-stop shopping system for
 the variety of interactions that I might want in an educational scenario eg
 peer-peer, peer-tutor, resource delivery, conferencing (and management) etc.

Lastly, I enjoy owning a piece of software from San Deiego State U (?) called
 Semnet, which produces semantic networks (only at a local level). I would like
 the feature of semantic web map creation (with all the local annotation I
 desire)  to interface into the WWW as well. I would also like to be able to
 create these personal maps on the fly.


Martin Owen
T.M.Owen@bangor.ac.uk

School of Education                     Yr Ysgol Addysg
University of Wales, Bangor        Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor
Deiniol  Road,                              Ffordd Deiniol
Bangor                                        Bangor
Gwynedd
LL57 2UW

Voice/Llais  +44 1248 382 943
Fax/Ffacs   +44 1248 371 187
URL: HTTP://weblife.bangor.ac.uk