Wild beasts and unapproachable bogs

Abstract

The current suite of Internet information tools only allow their users to reach specific subsets of the information available on the Internet, and require information providers and consumers to interact with data through specific paradigms. This has limited our ability to present and use information, and in fact seem to be little more than extensions of the text based world we have grown up with. There are many untapped possibilities in our interaction with data, but much work needs to be done to provide a framework on which new tools can be deployed. This paper examines the current tools, the infrastructure required to make the current tools work together, and surveys the techniques which have been promoted to enable easier interactions in the future. © 1994.