http://www.knosso.com/brochure.html (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)
The Internet is a global community of electronically-connected individuals. It is a functioning part of the lives of millions of people in over one hundred countries, and it's growing at an exponential rate that surpasses all other forms of media. While print, radio and television have become more specialized, the Internet is, literally, wide open.
The Internet comprises somewhere between five and thirty million people, many terabytes of publicly-accessable files and software, and hundreds of thousands of pages of browsable information.
Even as the Internet is spreading through society, the WorldWide Web is sweeping the Internet. It combines access to the Internet's resources of information with electronic publishing in a format that is readable by all major types of computer systems, from laptop to mainframe. It is a publishing medium that allows people all over the world to easily read and reference documents on thousands of topics.
In 1993, a program emerged from the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications. It was called Mosaic, and it gave the WorldWide Web a graphical interface, turning it into a kind of electronic magazine with mouse-based control. It was quickly available in versions for Windows, Macintosh, Amiga and Unix-based X-Windows computers. Mosaic and other "web browsers" offer the ability to display text and colour graphics, play sound clips, and download files. Recent innovations include interactive "clickable maps" and online fill-in forms, extending the interactivity beyond mere text.
Nearly everything on the Internet can be accessed through the WorldWide Web: software, documentation, events, businesses, people and companies promoting products and servicing customers, cultural creations, magazines, awards, and a whole community that has been evolving for over 25 years.
There was a time when commercial traffic was forbidden use of the publicly-sponsored sections of the Internet. Those restrictions have now been lifted. However, advertising on the Internet still remains a very delicate issue. A blatant or annoying attempt at promotion can often backfire on the person or company involved and result in a bad Net reputation. The quick grab for attention and blatant placement that is traditional to advertising on radio or TV is often met with contempt and hostility by the Internet community.
Part of the art of creating a promotional WWW site is understanding this sensitivity, creating an easy-to-use interface and providing enough worthwhile content for the site to be worth the visit. The important thing to remember is that sites on the WWW are visited voluntarily, and the standard of information on the Net is very high.
Whether you are promoting an event, starting a magazine, publishing a catalog or advertising a service, the WWW offers many advantages. Your information is available to millions of people around the world in an attractive and easy-to-use format. And, since a WWW site is judged by the Net community on its own merits, quite often a well-designed commercial site becomes popular beyond its targeted market, as an expression of the medium's innate creative potential.
A further advantage is that "hits" on each individual page and file can be tracked, providing a direct measure of visits to each part of your site. A rough estimate of the origin of most visitors can also be determined. In effect, a WWW site is its own readership survey.
A WWW site can also be used internally by a company or organization as a form of in-house electronic publishing. Web sites can also be constructed to point outwards into the WWW, turning a computer and modem into a powerful research tool that is simple to operate, yet can access anything from NASA and the Library of Congress to the Louvre museum.
You can easily add your information to the WorldWide Web by providing your own WWW pages. In this way you may effectively self-publish information about your organization, service or product. Pages are created using a markup language that allows formatting, graphics and cross-references. Once online, they are accessible worldwide.
Designing and building a WWW site is a complex process, but the costs are often much lower than producing and distributing print documents. In fact, the cost can be compared to the production stage of print publication. The price of Internet access is negligible when compared to that of print runs and distribution. Contact Knossopolis for a detailed quote on your WWW publication needs.
In a word, no. Most WWW sites are better located on a computer owned and maintained by a local Internet service provider—the same companies you would call up to open an Internet account. A service provider can usually offer much greater bandwidth and computing power than can an individual, and at a much lower price.
Knossopolis is a consulting team specializing in the design and production of WWW sites, much in the same way a a publishing company deals with print documents. Knossopolis has been building WWW sites since the first hours of the "Mosaic revolution"; with high-level expertise in planning, layout, interactive design, site maintenance, training and all the other elements which produce an effective WWW information server. We want to contribute this expertise to your projects. Past and present clients of Knossopolis have included the XV Commonwealth Games, Nettwerk Records, MediaWave magazine, the Electric Mail Company, Duthie Books, and more.
Knossopolis is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of the World Wide Web.
NWHQ is a hypermedia magazine of original art and literature. Designed and edited by Elizabeth Fischer and published by Knossopolis, NWHQ demonstrates that high-quality publishing is within anyone's grasp.
E-mail: knossopolis@wimsey.com WWW: http://www.knosso.com/ Phone: (604)988-4770 or pager (604)252-1474