Most Linkless

Abstract

Readers familiar with the works of Douglas Adams will get the joke! This presentation will explore what has happened to hypermedia since the advent of the World Wide Web. In particular we will consider why there is so little use of hypermedia in the Web. Associative linking is at best added value and at worst irrelevant to most Web sites. Search engines are the dominant means of finding information, but everyone is aware of their limitations. This is all set to change as we move into the world of pervasive computing and increasingly access the internet through hand-held devices. Agent technology will become the dominant means of building distributed information management systems. This together with the development of the Semantic Web will enable us to build environments which provide users with highly personalized and adaptive global information spaces to navigate through. The presentation will consider the role of hypermedia in such environments will there be more links or less? The answer is of course 42.