There are still many exciting technical advances which are changing the structure of the Web.  Newer developments such as Dynamic Documents, Java, and XML are already beginning to impact the manner in which Web resources are created.  The integration of multimedia materials is also changing the format in which information is transmitted, moving from a text-based to a visually-based medium.  There are many other changes occurring which may impact the creation of Web documents.

   For example, the Document Object Model (DOM) is a simple, hierarchical naming system that makes all of the objects in a Web page, such as images, accessible to scripting languages like JavaScript.  In DOM, there is an "object" that represents the page.  All of the objects contained within the page, like images, "branch off" of this document object.  The whole point of the DOM is to mirror the markup on the page that allows programs and scripts to access and update the content, structure, and style of documents in a standard way.

   Other developments which will affect the future applications of the Web includes the development of a programming language called the X3D. X3D extends and upgrades the capabilties of the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) using XML. X3D allows users to interact with a Web site using an interactive interface.  Libraries could soon provide users with a 3-D version of their Web space which look just like their physical library facilities.  What will be more likely is that libraries will be providing access to 3-D models of anatomic parts. 

For More Information:

• Dougherty, Dale.The Document Object Model Explained. WebReview. November 14, 1997.
• The X3D Consortium

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