Initially, there was just a gaggle of academicians experiencing equal proportions of frustration and excitement about the Internet’s possibilities and others publicly declared it as a thin line between vision and hallucination.  But, clearly the Internet and, even more especially the WWW, is bringing about a planetary paradigm shift in information access and exchange, commerce, publishing and communication.  Initially this resource was like walking into the world’s largest library only to find all the books and pages of information dumped into one heap on the floor, but sophisticated search engines have come a long way in sorting this out.  In 1997, when I edited Mosby’s Medical Sufari it was estimated that there were about 100 million pages on the WWW and the doubling time was about every four months.  I suspect that now there are more than a billion pages in this digital library.

  People want choices.  Look around again at the mega malls, Sam’s, Wal-Marts and mega markets.  When it comes to information needs, people want it quickly, of course, so that they may make decisions or choices. The heightened public and professional awareness on health has everyone wanting more information about healthcare in order to make intelligent, informed choices about their personal health.

  Generally there are five types of web site visitors: directed information seekers, undirected information seekers, bargain hunters, entertainment seekers and directed buyers.  The directed information seekers are looking for focused information that is timely and relevant and most of the users looking for health information are of this type.

 As a writer and editor, I have prepared many professional writings for publication and I can tell you that it is a formidable process of drafting, writing, editing and rewriting until the product approaches perfection.  I have often thought of Flannery O’Connor saying, “Everywhere I go I am asked if I think the university stifles writers.  My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them.  There is many a best seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.”  With the advent of the WWW, anyone with an opinion and a willingness to share it publicly can “publish” it for all the world to see.

 The WWW is not an empirically clean, reliable source of information.  The virtual world is no different than our real life world, as both have been littered by a minority in ways that the majority of people would prefer not to see.  Information quality on or off the Internet depends upon the source and how current the information is.  Always look at the source of the information and stick with sites that come from recognized institutions or centers.  Also check to see how recently the information was updated.  Medical association sites are also particularly good sources.  If you do not have access to the WWW from your home you may find that your local hospital or public library provides this service.

  Clearly, the Internet looms as the dominant forum for rapid global communication and dissemination of information.  We are living in a time of profound change and interconnection and the WWW is a brilliant example that will most surely further evolve into something monumental with arresting combinations of text, sound and video.