An engineering approach to electronic publishing

Electronic publishing refers to the use of computer technology in publishing or distributing information. This paper focuses on electronic publishing using the World Wide Web (WWW) as a distribution medium. The hypothesis of this paper is that electronic publishing on the Internet is in many ways analogous to developing software. Therefore, the principles and practices of software engineering that have emerged from many years of learning how best to create and maintain software can be usefully applied to electronic publishing. Electronic documents developed from an engineering perspective will meet the growing demand for quality information products at a manageable cost.