INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYMPOSIUM
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important insights stem from long social and cultural traditions rather
than scientific research. Personal experience also plays a much more
important role. Conflict situations are so chaotic and complex that there
are no generally accepted procedures for determining what works and
doesn't work and why. This means that any comprehensive information
system must deal with differing user images of what constitutes reliable
information. Web-based programs, because they can draw upon the
field's entire knowledge base, are able
to
offer users options tailored to
a variety of social and cultural orientations.
Another big advantage the Web has over conventional training pro–
grams is its confidentiality. Understandably, people find it difficult to tell
their boss that they don't know how
to
do their job and that they need
one thousand dollars and a week off in order to learn it. The Web offers
people an opportunity
to
advance their skills discretely and come
to
the
boss with great new ideas which can help the organization better deal
with conflict problems, while also advancing their careers and reputations.
There is another aspect of the Web which is largely positive, even
though it may actually increase the number and severity of conflicts.
This arises from the Internet's ability
to
help widely dispersed interest
groups effectively organize themselves in ways which only wealthy user
groups used to be able to afford. This is an empowering effect which is
enabling previously disenfranchised groups to represent their interests
more effectively in the public policy arena .
There are also future revolutionary changes in the pipeline. One for
which I've been waiting for a long time is the development of affordable
and highly portable computer displays and Web browsers that can be
read as easily as old-fashioned paper. Such a display would be cheap,
tough, light, and small (about the size and weight of a hardcover book).
It
would have just a few buttons and a high quality, easy-to-read screen.
You would be able to put it on the kitchen table like a newspaper or
read it as you ride to work on the subway or cuddle up with it in your
favorite easy chair. Such displays will, for the first time, make computer–
based hypertext able
to
compete with everyday, print-based media.
A second, perhaps more important innovation will be the addition of
audio and video clips
to
Web TV. This will permit purposeful and pro–
ductive channel flipping.
It
will also require the development of hypertext–
oriented audio and video materials which parallel the text-based materials
described earlier.
Still, one of the biggest problems with the Internet is that it is the best
vanity publishing system imaginable. For a couple of bucks you can put
an article up on the Web and, with a little luck, the search engines will
