Hypertext vs. Papertext: Fewer Layers of Editing

Perhaps one of the Web's biggest drawbacks is the not so much inherent to the medium as it is just the way people use it. On the Web, most companies put less effort into editing and verifying information. One example of this is a company called Vicarious Vissions. Their user manuals, advertisements and other papertext documents generally go through at least 5 layers of editing, and frequently more than that. However, their WWW site only went through two layers of editing: the designers, who had not previously been affiliated with the company, and the president, who did most of the writing to begin with.

So just what is it that causes this strange phenomenon? Who knows. There are many possible reasons. Probably one of the main reasons is that the Web is still so young that many companies still don't see it as a real medium of advertisement. This is probably a misconception on their part, however. The Internet is becoming bigger and more popular every day. The more popular it gets, the more difficult it will be to ignore or put only partial effort into.

Two other big reasons which may lead to companies using fewer layers of editing are the fact that they can quickly update information and that Web pages seem to lack permanence. Basically, the company figures it can go out and fix things at any time. Don't let yourself fall into this trap! Yes, you can fix errors at any time, but how many potential customers and followers might you lose in the interim? If you ever catch an error in one of your Web pages, you should be as worried as you would be if you had caught an error in a papertext brochure. You should also act to correct the error even faster than you would to correct a similar error in a papertext brochure.

Although at present, Web pages tend not to go through as many layers of editing as their equivalent papertext documents, I believe that this situation is definitely changing. More companies are realizing how popular the Internet is, what a large source potential customers and revenue it is, and how important it can be to their businesses. For these reasons, the companies that can afford to are putting a lot more money and effort into their Web pages. These companies are on the right track. Take a hint from them.

Which path would you like to follow?

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