Hypertext vs. Papertext: Permanence

The issue of permanence is really an issue of non-permanence. What I mean by that is that the Web is a very dynamic medium where you have the ability to update information almost immediately. How do you create permanence in this sort of medium? In papertext there is always some sort of permanence; there is always a done phase. Usually, it would be the time something goes to print. In a dynamic medium, such as the Web, there is no such thing as done. Something can be updated or changed in a matter of seconds. How do you provide a record of what has been done? You could archive after every change you make, but this could take up a ridiculous amount of storage space. Or you could make constant changes and updates, but only replace the on-line pages once a day. This, of course, begins to detract from one of the Web's main selling points: the ability to update information quickly.

One potential place for this to become a serious pitfall is in legal battles. Let's say someone were suing you, claiming that you had something on your page which had, in fact, never been there? How could you prove it? Do you trust your webmaster enough to know that it wasn't there? This is also a security issue. Someone could easily manage to copy and alter your page and still make it appear, in hardcopy if not directly on the Web, to be yours. How can you defend against this? That will be discussed more on the security page.

So permanence, or lack thereof, is an issue to consider when you first put up your Web site. You should have some idea of what your policy is going to be. Otherwise, you may lose your early work. Maybe that doesn't matter. But, then again, maybe it does.

Which path would you like to follow?

Next:	Full-Text Path	Legal Issues	Short Time to Update	WWW & the Internet
Previous:	Full-Text Path	Legal Issues	Short Time to Update	WWW & the Internet

Return to Introduction	Table of Contents