Volume 32, Issue 4

Origins William of Normandy, having conquered England, decided in 1086 to take account of his new territory. The result was the Domesday Book (actually more than one), which now resides in the National Archives. For the BBC, the 900 th anniversary in 1986 presented an opportunity to produce a television series, hosted by Michael Wood. A more unusual production was to use the combination of computer and video known as interactive video to produce a kind of modern-day equivalent of William's survey.

Introduction Can a book that doesn't come from comprehensibly materialized textual means still be considered a book? What happens when, in the form of an electronic publication on the World Wide Web, a typical book-type volume is designed to be networked and includes multi-media? As the physical object itself disappears, one of the conditions required for the existence of book science faces extinction. Is the Internet – or rather the World Wide Web contained in it – a medium that opposes the book? In the context of discussions regarding media competition, this idea is becoming widespread. Infinitely more exciting, though, is that we are experiencing an information technology revolution and, in fact, a medial revolution without a new medium.