NCSA MOSAIC AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB - GLOBAL HYPERMEDIA PROTOCOLS FOR THE INTERNET

Network information systems reached the public consciousness this year as a result of the phenomenal growth in the use of the Internet. In p articular, the software constituting NCSA (National Center for Superco mputing Applications) Mosaic and the World Wide Web have made global h ypermedia a widespread reality for the first time. The technology unde rlying this software is described to explain the protocols behind info rmation spaces. These include the historical predecessors, the current protocols with examples, future directions for the software, and disc ussion of research systems with different architectures. Reasons for i ts popularity are given, with the goal of illuminating successful serv ices for the National Information Infrastructure.