Men do exchange knowledge among themselves by means of sounds, images, and written text either directly, or indirectly using specific supports. 
Mirando la historia pasada de la comunicación se descubre que cada nueva tecnología hubo un sencillo efecto sobre la civilisación y la cultura. Por ejemplo la tipografía desarrollada por Johann Gutenberg helped to reduce the cost of printing books and contributed significantly to the diffusion of knowledge. The introduction of radio broadcasting at the beginning of the twentieth century and later television broadcasting had equally well a deep impact on modern society. 

By examining what happened as the various technologies were introduced we notice that each time the rules of communication have been changed, be it the news press, be it the telephone, be it the cinematography, or be it the computer just to mention a few of them. On the other hand we observe that each of these technologies has been at the origin of new communication paradigms with distinct characteristics and that they have not been often intermixed or combined. 
As a natural development from this diversification can be considered the subsequent appearance of a technology encompassing all of them into one medium: 

the digital telecommunication, at the basis of the Internet or world wide web (WWW). It is not far fetched to designate it as the universal medium, just mind what actually can be done through it: phone calls, teleconferencing, broadcasting of voice and images, and publishing. In fact any combination of sounds, images and written text can be implemented. From what precedes emerges clearly that the digital communication revolution we are experiencing will be remembered as a major step in mankind's evolution. 

The sight of the astounding potentiality of the Internet as a medium leads us to question what are the design requirements for an adequate publication. 
Apart caring for the intrinsic value of the message we wish to promote, we have to care more about its presentation. This task is not made easier due to the increased freedom attained by the medium and by the increasingly blurred boundaries between the various communication paradigms. The ever larger public we can reach also requires from us a more 

careful and responsible approach. A new challenge posed by the Internet are the fast context switches it allows in contrast to real life where our mind has more time to make the transition. This shows us that it would make no sense to transfer directly into web pages what has routinely been done up to now on the existing media; there is a real risk of depreciating the content or not getting the message through at all. 
Instead of just intending the web as everybody connected to everybody, one should get aware of the many ways 

a message can be linked with those of many other actors present. It sounds pretty as a paradox that the same medium, thought to cause in future an increased isolation among individuals, in fact owes its force mainly to its linking potentialities. 
The finest effect by far of this web interactions is that single contributions, once they are put in relation, get an accrued value. Again the powerfulness of the universal medium can also be ascribed to the lower cost barrier set for anybody wanting to promote his own message. 

In the past few years we saw evolve in the Internet a broad spectrum of presentation forms and styles which by itself confirm the huge creativity potential of the medium. Yet a critical review of all this makes appear a number of excesses and inadequacies which can be partly explained by the fact that many authors and web designers lack the background 

proper to the traditional media operators. The probably most frequent mistake made today is the overloading of a page with pictures, graphic elements, gadgets and text to a point that one gets helplessly confused. Even those who welcome or recognise the need for advertisement may get infuriated by what resembles more often to harassment than 

to a friendly and clever message broadcast. There is also the unfortunate habit of compensating poor message content and futility with size, graphics, and unrelated animation. 
After this rather gloomy sights one enjoys even more the discovery of well designed sites and pages. 

Before undertaking the realisation of web pages it is good practice to set up some rules helping to achieve a coherent design. 
Para poder dar un retrato equilibrado de la personalidad se puede incorporar elementos de contenido tales que permitan a los demás hacerse una idea del estilo de vida y de la filosofía del autor. La selección de un diseño gráfico apropiado junto al fin de mostrar el contenido lo mas claro posible sin perder detalles esenciales pueden ser obtenidos por ejemplo con la utilización de paginas

individuales para cada argumento y estructurando el texto. Esta deliberación esta en acuerdo con el deseo de no causar perdida de tiempo al lector, por eso se suprime todo lo que puede causar atrasos durante la carga de los datos. La adición de "hipervinculos" apropiados en las paginas aumenta la libertad de acceso al lector; deberían ser escogidos pensando entre otros a los diferentes intereses y las diferentes capacidades lingüísticas. La forma rectangular transversa de las pantallas rinde necesario adaptaciones especificas para

alcanzar una presentación legible. Medidas técnicas W3C WAI Page Author Guidelines Working Group facilitating the access to disabled people should also be part of the design. Even if recent technical developments now allow an easier handling of sound, one can wait with its introduction since a majority of users still do not have at their disposal the appropriate hardware. 
Esto fueron algunas consideraciones lejos de ser definitivas, que guiaron el diseño de estas paginas.

Louis JEAN-RICHARD

Diciembre 1999