Navigating at Warp Factor Five: Plotting a World Wide Web Research Course

In this paper, we consider one possible strategy for planning a World Wide Web research effort in the face of the rapid change that characterizes our field. We begin by providing an overview of the basic WWW model and some of the types of extensibility currently widely available. Then, we consider three closely related areas of research with respect to identifying both solutions we can adopt and problematic or difficult research questions we will need to face. We conclude with some observations on the general characteristics that many potentially interesting and worthwhile WWW research efforts share and on how we can learn in a principled way from our colleagues in other fields.

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