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Newness

If you visit a Web site often you don't want to have to search everywhere to find out what has changed since your last visit. That's why it is common good practice to provide a "What's New?" page. And, of course, we agree. But the fact that "newness" is a prime asset on the Internet gives food for thought. John-Perry Barlow once suggested (in Wired Magazine) that the value of information increases with the proximity to its source. The closer you get, the more you pay to have access. In the rush to supply the most recent news and ideas, what happens to all those things that fall off the edge and disappear into oblivion because they are too old and "out-dated"? Are they no longer of value? And what about the historical perspective? In many ways the virtual world of the Internet has no physical depth. That everyone on the Net is seamlessly and simultaneously linked to everyone else, creates the illusion that geographical distances are swept away. Is it also to become a world without a past?

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Created: August 28th, 1996 - Last up-dated: August 28th, 1996