In reply to: Re: The web is adaptive; it is an open field of experiment. posted by jennifer terry on April 17, 1996 at 17:16:49:
there are many ghost sites on the web. that is because people who maintained pages for a while probably got tired of it. in certain cases, it is probably also because they lack funds to maintain a *professional* web presence. so in that sense, it more like an evolving system (as in solar system). the biggest challenge for the corporate world, as i see it, is that the fact the web changes so fast gives them little ground to maintain an interesting presence without having to spend tremendous resources. as the parameters are not defined yet - going back to its being adaptive - the web is informed by the creative impulse of programmers, engineers, technicians of all sorts, and, of course, designers (last, but not least!). it is probably going to be rather difficult to establish certain standards. one could say that in that sense, it cannot really be an homogeineous environment.
programmed fixity, as far as i am concerned, is essentially what is being challenged every day. it is hopefully reassuring that the decency act, for instance, has been challenged the minute it was enacted. any attempt to regain control over a system that has gotten loose in the name of liberalism is a pretty interesting contradiction. maybe that what is what the web so interesting, in a way