Of all the Internet clients we had access to, the one that generated the most excitement was Mosaic. It s hard to express in words the excitement we felt as each new beta version of Mosaic was introduced. It was the feeling that we were witnessing an evolutionary jump in online communications, not simply noticing improvements in a software package. Mosaic has been aptly described as the first killer app of the Internet. Since it also incorporates the capabilities of other clients such gopher, telnet, and ftp, we concluded that the use of Mosaic would grow and that the World Wide Web would soon become the predominate Internet protocol.
Computer interfaces are extremely critical to the success of the application.
If the interface requires a high learning curve, most users will quit in frustration and will not return. But in the battle for the consumer s choice, the library world was caught napping in interface technology. The first step in developing our server was to explore technical requirements to be operational. One of our stipulations was that setup and maintenance could be easily performed by existing staff who were not information systems professionals. This was true because our organization s Information Systems department was occupied in long-term, time consuming projects such as converting mainframe WANG systems to a open systems platform.