It is a widely held view that the Internet has potential to offer a paradigm shift in communication, publishing and human interaction. The title of this somewhat unassuming looking volume hints that internetworking is the new medium for publishing. Indeed, Arnold argues that publishing is a natural

It is not enough for us to talk about publishing on the Internet in the same way as we describe conventional, print-based publishing. The Internet is a new and different medium with a potential to transform current notions of publishing. It offers much more than an opportunity to adapt the existing conventions of broadcasting and print publication. This is made more apparent when the demographics of the internetworked environment are explained -- Who is using the network? What are the signposts of this new medium? What are the differences between paper publishing and network publishing? Arnold treats these issues in the introductory chapters of this briefing before moving on to discuss various categories of Internet publishing tools (eg page-creating tools; drag and drop software; live audio; video on the Net).

It has been suggested elsewhere that the Internet will transform the existing culture of scholarship. For instance, the Internet is a perfect medium for what some have referred to as scholarly skywriting. Here, authors publish drafts of ideas for comments from peers within the scholarly community prior to publication. The idea of a free flowing scholarship and global collegiality within disciplines and across disciplines is indeed compelling -- a new form of scholarship for a new millennium. The key to realising this potential is satisfactory resolution of issues related to what Arnold calls security and the new medium. These issues are intellectual property, copyright and privacy. Authors must know that their intellectual property is protected on the Internet in the same way that it is in print publishing. Until this is the case, the-widespread archiving of a scholarly knowledge base through refereed electronic journals is unlikely to occur.

The problem with many books published on or about internetworking is that the Internet can transform itself in the time that it takes a book to be published. It is, therefore, difficult to speculate meaningfully about the future of the Internet because viewpoints can become redundant or even ridiculous before a publication date is reached. To his credit, Arnold overcomes this problem through a systematic appraisal of the vectors for change. These vectors for change and centres for innovation have their roots in the basic functions of the UNIX-based Internet. They are the interactivity vector, network vector, archive vector and applications and tools vector. Arnold explains that the mingling of individual innovations from these four vectors will produce technology blends rather than convergence. From these blends will emerge the intelligent software, image processing and user-defined outputs that define publishing on the Internet in the new millennium.