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paying royalties to the authors of those related documents on a per- access basis. But the World Wide

Web was a simpler, leaner and more easily implemented incarna- tion of a hypertext system — obvi- ously more viable for immediate purposes, as evidenced by the sim- ple fact that it exists, and it is unclear whether Mr. Nelson will ever be successful in creating a system that delivers the promise of

Xanadu.

Mr. Berners-Lee also proposed

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), a subdivision of SGML (Structured Generalized Markup

Language) that defines the ele- ments of a document based on structure rather than specific for- matting. Because different com- puter platforms have different resources available to them, a structure-based method of creating

Industries, Inc.

Circle 319 on Reader Service Card documents would allow each client computer to interpret an HTML document in the way most appro- priate to its resources. This made

HTML largely independent of what display capabilities the user might or might not have.

The Pace Of Change

Just as it is unlikely that anyone who originally developed the AR-

PAnet knew it would evolve into something with as much potential as the Internet, it is almost as unlikely that those who worked on the basic HTML language just a few short years ago knew it would be extended to support the kind of functionality it now has.

One of the first extensions of the basic HTML text document was one that allowed the incorporation of images into HTML. This exten- sion was proposed by Marc

Andreesen, who was then work- ing at the National Center for

Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which developed the first

World Wide Web "browser" soft- ware, called Mosaic. When that functionality was added to Mosaic, people began to see the true poten- tial of the Web.

Mr. Andreesen subsequently co- founded Netscape Communica- tions with Jim Clark, formerly of

Silicon Graphics. Netscape has been the source of many new extensions to HTML since then — so many that the normal standards development process has been for- saken for HTML, because no stan- dards organization could keep up with the rapid development of the language without acting as a restraining influence on its progress. Netscape Communica- tions' browser, Navigator, while clearly owing a debt to NCSA's

Mosaic, has since far surpassed

Mosaic as the most popular brows- er, largely because Netscape has continually innovated to expand the abilities of the software as it has expanded the abilities of the

HTML language itself.

Maritime Industry

Applications

What does all this have to do with the maritime industry? At least as much as it has to do with every other industry.

Web "pages," as the individual

HTML documents are called, can embed the functions of file transfer and e-mail directly into the page: a user has only to click on a hyper- text link (also called a "hotlink) to access the functions once they are built into the page. With a bit more effort and the help of some custom programming, the pages can even be designed to perform tasks like database searching.

Consider the potential in that capability for those companies who want to give customers direct access to what inventory they have in stock: a potential client can sim- ply access the database through the Internet and know immediate- ly whether the part he or she needs is in stock — and if it isn't, possibly order it.

Many companies which have served the maritime industry for years, some for decades, have already realized the potential of the World Wide Web for marketing their products and services. Each company's site tends to offer fea- tures that reflect that company's specific business and character.

The marine companies that have begun to establish an Internet presence include: • Wartsila Diesel's Web site

Think Of It As

The Strong, Silent Type

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