What do we still lack?

Abstract

Hypertext on The Web is ubiquitous; it is hyperlinking that makes it a web. The current hypertext Web is useful and comfortable, but it could and should be richer, more expressive, and more enabling. Capabilities that could and should be added include annotation, precise linking, bidirectional linking, transclusion, dynamic views, dynamic linking, trails, orientation, integration of linking and style, and chunking. These capabilities are especially important to readers as opposed to authors. They have been implemented and proven in multiple systems, and some have been tried on a small scale on the Web; but they presently depend on individual sites' sufferance and sophistication. For basic functionality like this, we need to do better. A feature that only works with certain sites, plug-ins, or conventions; or only for sophisticated authors rather than for all authors and readers — makes “readers” (all of us at most times) second-class citizens in the world of information. We must rid ourselves of the notion that a reader is of a different class than an author: that the Web is largely a broadcast system that requires expertise to contribute beyond the occasional comment or re-post. Readers must become first-class citizens on The Web.