The Web and Corporate Communication: Potentials and Pitfalls

Over the last two years a new publishing and communication medium known as the World Wide Web has grown from an academic experiment to a viable tool for the dissemination of all kinds of information. This chapter examines the technologies employed in using the Web, and the uses to which the organization can employ the technology. It also describes the organizational considerations in creating a Web site including software and hardware concerns (such as browser software, Web server), and some of the problems which must be confronted in operating a Web site. A case study of how the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida developed and is using the Web provides additional illustration of the Web's potentials for internal and external communication. The chapter concludes with a brief description of organizational and legal issues which have been spawned by use of the Web.