Still seeking: signposts of things to come

This year (1995) the latest news is about who is making what for publication on the World Wide Web. The good news is that we now have a primitive infrastructure capable of delivering most of the multimedia objects and functions we once thought essential. The bad news is that this infrastructure is currently underpowered and extremely cumbersome to use. As a desktop publishing medium, the World Wide Web hearkens to the old model of pamphleteering, where anyone has the right to advertise opinion without censorship or editorial interference. How far can we go down this aesthetically and sociologically independent path before regulation and other forces converge to tame it, imposing a layer of moderation or editorial control between author and audience?.