As we have learned during Corona Gate, technology can add to our ability to get and do what we want during tough times. Technology can also make it harder to complete what was once done with simple person to person communication or direct written communication. While the web sometimes feels like a shopping mall gone-crazy, it was invented to facilitate communication between scientists. The user still helps determine what grows and what dies on the web, not the company selling a product or service. So to you, my users, I ask you to comment on these web postings. And email me with any comments or suggestions at karinwiburg@gmail.com.

Why is writing for the web so different? Nick Ozborne, who teaches for the American Writers and Artists International (AWAI) states that writers for the web should see themselves as architects rather than isolated laborers. The attributes available for web writing are multi-dimensional, random and far different than the traditional and linear print page. The writer learns to use images, sound, text, and animation to further empower messages. And most of all anything can be connected to anything. Which is what led to “spaghetti code” or many lost noodles in much of the early web writing and programming. The writer needs to know how all the pages of the whole house of a web site are intended to connect in order to write another page for the web. 

In sum, the potential for multi-media can greatly enhance text and message. At the same time connecting any page to any object shows up as chaos and it requires much skill to use the wonderful affordances for writing for the web. This site is about web writing.