In terms of the above three categories, it provides both an important new source of data and an important new means of information delivery. It therefore creates an opportunity to make existing navigation systems even more valuable. In order for a computer to work with data, it must first be able to physically access the data. The providers of disk and network technology continue to put more and more megabytes within reach of the machines on our desks. More than simple physical access is required, however.
Data comes in an ever-increasing number of formats.
Tools are needed to translate from one format to another, to extract the meaningful fields from structured repositories, to maintain proper handshaking with providers of feeds such as newswires, and in general to act as interpreters on the Tower of Babel construction site that our computers have become. Tools that provide both physical and logical access to data are required for a navigation system to work at all. For it to work well, the tools must be invisible. They should remove the artificial barriers between different types of data. Information-hungry users should be able to focus on the content being provided and not have to think about the mechanical details of transport or representation.