Other than the Summer Olympics, the Worldwide Web is the most over-hyped phenomenon in recent memory. The hype may make some people see the Web as a fad. But like many overnight sensations, there were many years of development out of the public eye. The WWW has a good solid base and is not going away. Apple Computer Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation are both taking steps to integrate the WWW into the next versions of their operating systems so that it will not make any difference to your computer whether a document resides on the Internet or on your hard drive.
Internet access is already an integral part of some game and encyclopedia software.
It would be surprising indeed if the WWW were still in its present form 10 years from now, but it will still be here. In its 1996 membership survey, IAPD asked 283 agencies if they had a web page on the Internet. Of the 139 total respondents, nine indicated yes. Two others stated they utilize other WWW addresses to promote their agency and one other had a web page in development. The expectation is that this time next year, these figures will change dramatically.