There were no Web-based collaborative tools when we started Kairos. We posted meeting minutes onto Web pages, opened additional documents in other browser windows, hashed things out in synchronous environments (usually MediaMOO when we were starting) and all of us sent back-channel messages through email before, during and after these meetings. Such communication has become commonplace. I teach using BlackBoard, contributed to the development of TOPIC at Texas Tech, and every "new" Web-based tool that is hyped as the next killer app reminds me of the environment we cobbled together in order to create the journal.

Ultimately, we were engaging the early grammar of Web-based communication. But we were not programmers, nor were any of us particularly interested in making money. We were interested in the future of communication, in looking at how these new digital tools may or may not impact literacy. And we were trying to offer a place where folks might get a little credit for the work they would be doing anyway, whether or not there was a way to add it to a tenure dossier.

Next — "Netscape Time"

• Intro: Time Flows
• Where Are They Now?
  Start | MD | GS | CW | JT | MS
• At First ...
  1 | 2 | 3
• CoverWebs: Promise and Praxis
  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
• Sidebar: Foucalt
• Vision: The Future of Writing
  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7
• The Plan: "Hypertext Studios"
  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
• An Ending (For Now)
• Doherty Responds: 1 | 2

Kairos logo circa 2002 ... and beyond?