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LINMO is a model for web sites that are designed to provide a large quantity of high quality information about a specific topic for the largest possible audience. Sites that conform to this model combine the best attributes of well-written hard copy (i.e., printed on paper) books and the numerous advantages that the web can offer over traditional printed media. Such sites can be developed by skilled writers who possess only the most basic of computer expertise by following a set of relatively simple and largely intuitive guidelines. Although the emphasis is on textual content, these guidelines can also be applied to other types of content as well, particularly mixed content which includes a substantial amount of text. LINMO is a project of the Bellevue, Washington-based Bellevue Linux Users Group (BELUG). It was begun as a result of the success of The Linux Information Project (LINFO), the first known large-scale example of a web site that largely conforms to this model (and also a BELUG project). LINMO is an acronym for linked information modules as well as for the LINFO web content development model. Advantages of the Web The web is perhaps the most important advance for the dissemination of information since Gutenberg's invention of the movable type printing press around 1450. It offers a number of advantages over printed media, including the facts that (1) anyone can immediately publish their work for a worldwide audience, (2) there are no costs for paper, printing, binding or shipping, (3) a work can be updated immediately, (4) content can be accessed anywhere in the world where there is an Internet connection and (5) there is nothing for readers to buy once the initial equipment and connection are obtained. Because this is such a great leap beyond what was available with traditional, hard copy publishing, it is taking a considerable time for the web to approach its potential. This is typical with major new technologies, as was, for example, the case with the steam engine and electricity. Three Models Despite its newness, the web already contains a vast amount of information about virtually every conceivable topic. The textual information is presented in a variety of forms, but it could be generally divided into three broad categories or models. These categories are analogous to the three main categories of printed text, and each to some extent combines attributes of printed media with the advantages of the web. One is what might be called the article model or the periodical model. This consists of single articles or sometimes a group of articles about various topics or various aspects of a single topic. The great bulk of content on the web follows this model. The second, the encyclopedia model, attempts to cover every possible topic. The outstanding example of this to date is the Wikipedia1, a free, on-line encyclopedia that allows virtually anybody to contribute and/or edit articles. It generally employs a separate page for each topic, subtopic, etc., all of which are interconnected with hyperlinks. The third category could be called the book model. It resembles a conventional book in that it attempts to cover a single topic in depth. Indeed, a number of books have been adapted for the web or written specially for the web2. This category has by far the smallest presence on the web. However, it has a much greater potential, especially if some fundamental changes were made to such sites. LINMO LINMO is an attempt to optimize the book model with regard to usability. The conclusion is that the optimal logical module for such sites becomes the self-contained article, in contrast to the chapter in hard copy books. A self-contained article is a web page that is devoted to just a single topic or subtopic and that contains definitions and explanations of specialized terms and concepts so that it is understandable by and useful to a wide range of people, including those with little or no previous knowledge about the topic. A module is a self-contained component of a system (e.g., a product) that has a well-defined interface (e.g., hyperlinks in the case of self-contained pages) to other components of the system. There is typically some degree of substitutability among identical and/or non-identical modules within a system or between systems. The problem with conventional web sites that contain a large amount of related content, including books that are designed for or posted on the web, is that they lack a clear understanding of modularization and what is the most efficient form of module for the presentation of information. That is, some aspects of books and some aspects of web sites are combined, but the selection of which aspects of each are used is usually not the best one. The basic differences in LINMO-compatible web sites as contrasted with conventional book model web sites are that (1) the chapter is replaced by self-contained, but carefully interlinked, articles as the main unit of organization, (2) each page is written in a generally inverted pyramid form (as is common in journalism but not in books), (3) the linear arrangement of information among chapters and pages is entirely replaced by an associative arrangement and (4) most most other conventions of well-crafted hard copy books (e.g., a high standard of writing, consistency and simplicity) are strictly adhered to. In this context, usability might be defined as making a web site as useful (e.g., accessible, informative and interesting) as possible to the largest number of people. Maximizing usability can be a challenging task, because of both the wide range of levels of knowledge in the population regarding any particular topic and other aspects of human variability. This challenge is compounded by the fact that the web can usually expose content to much larger and more diverse audiences than can printed books, although it might be mitigated somewhat by the fact that the web provides useful tools for accommodating these great differences among individuals. The Future At present, the only known large-scale example of a (mostly) LINMO-compliant website is The Linux Information Project. There are several reasons for this, including the facts that (1) creation of such a site can be a difficult, expensive and time-consuming undertaking, (2) the web is still in its infancy and (3) there has been no precedent for such a project until recently. However, there are numerous other suitable topics for developing into LINMO-compatible web sites. The benefits from creating such sites could be immense, mainly for the users but also for the authors. Moreover, creation of such sites could be somewhat easier for new topics both because there is now a specific example to show that it can be done and because detailed guidelines now exist as to how to do it.
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2For example, a list of books on the web that are primarily about Linux and related topics can be found on the page Online Books, Bellevue Linux, 2004. Created May 8, 2006. |