Writing the Web while disconnected

The World Wide Web has exploded as a medium for sharing information in a relatively simple, easy-to-use, and appealing manner. Technology for accessing Web resources has naturally evolved to support disconnected viewing of cached pages normally residing on servers around the world, and much attention has been given to providing this capability. The Web was originally conceived, however, as a medium for both information sharing and collaborative work, for creating and updating information, as well as for reading. Very little work has considered how to support the update and creation of material while disconnected, for propagation back to the appropriate servers upon reconnection. This article discusses issues arising in such support, compares the problem to that in disconnected file systems, and describes an approach for disconnected updates, as demonstrated by our Caubweb(TM) technology for disconnected interaction with Web-based resources.