Computers as word processors begin to break down this paradigm of few privileged publishers needing massive numbers of subscribers to succeed. Computers are now consumer products, but access to software publishing is about the same as access to print publishing. Another attribute of an electronic Writing Space is the ability to index and analyze documents. Searching large indexes is proving to be very useful. A problem is current search engines generally cannot take into account usefulness or quality of documents.
Much work needs to be done to take better advantage of machine-analyzed documents.
One interesting idea would analyse not only content, but people's interaction with the content. Lifelong learners in the Information Age require tools unlike the general purpose PCs. Like the telephone and television of the industrial age, Information Appliances need to pervade our lives, and so will needed software. Like pencil and paper, these devices need to be usable by everyone. Unlike pencil and paper, Information Appliances come with communications built-in.