WWW 1.0 modes and genres — what has worked

Hypertext and Hypermedia

1. Reference hypermedia (e.g., dictionaries, repair manuals) in which linking can be almost entirely automatic or computationally driven. These are also essentially fixed, complete when done.

2. Scholarly, critical, and instructional hypermedia, such as The Victorian Web, in which

• linking offers much more than search tools can because it often involves specialized knowledge,
• much of the linking is subjective (i.e. not capable of being automatically generated
• always open-ended and changing, a living developing form of text, and
• one must find ways for the reader to avoid getting lost in e-space.

3. Literary and artistic hypermedia, which is experimental and because it may make extensive use of disorientation it differs greatly from academic hypermedia.

Search-based Collections

1. Scholarly Archives (the Rossetti Archive), search-driven sites of actual museums and libraries (Library of Congress; National Portrait Gallery, London), online-only museums (Art Renewal Center, online stores and auctions (Amazon.com, EBay)

Broadcast (i.e. passive-viewer) multimedia

1. U-tube movies.

2. Non-interactive Flash presentations (Pearl Forss's What is an Author?).