The Internet provides a whole new way of reaching one's colleagues. It is nothing less than a revolution in publishing. It does an end-run around the judges of scientific propriety and makes you, the individual, the final arbiter, which is as it should be. I predict that more and more articles will be published on the Web, with the traditional peer review by-passed entirely. The audience to whom the publishing is directed will set the standards of quality necessary for articles to receive serious consideration within the group.
Traditional peer reviewed journal articles are actually many months old when published.
Publishing on the Web will eliminate this delay. Publishing on the Web will also eliminate those giant journals sent to our homes and offices. Soon we will be able to create our own journals with the contents specified by us. There will be many attempts to control the freedom of speech, press, and information provided by the Web. For our own sake, we must resist this.