Information is just signs and numbers, while knowledge has semantic value. Heinz R. Pagels, The Dreams of Reason (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988).

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Electronic Publishing
Word processing software has revolutionized the process of producing the printed word. Many of the operations previously performed by large printing companies can now done on personal computers, a phenomenon known as desktop publishing.

A CD-ROM can store about 680 million characters. By comparison, the Bible contains around 5 million characters. That means a single CD-ROM could contain the text for over 100 books about the size of the Bible. DVDs can hold even more characters—6.5 to 13 times as many as a CD; HD-DVDs and Blu-ray DVDs can hold far more. Such enormous storage capacity allows one to easily store, transport, and copy text from a large number of books. Calvin University (formerly Calvin College) professor Harry Plantinga has created the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (www.ccel.org), which makes hundreds of classic Christian texts available to anyone, by CD-ROM or via download over the Internet.

Hypertextuality
This Web book, in fact, is an example of the changing nature of textuality. Electronic text is not merely the on-screen version of printed text; rather, electronic text can have special characteristics. For example, whereas the printed word is inherently static, electronic text is dynamic: it can change, move, and even disappear. This is one of the meanings of hypertextuality.

However, many would argue that clickable links are the defining feature of hypertext. Unlike a book, which is usually linear—i.e., read from beginning to end—hypertext can be multilinear (perhaps even to the extent that it seems nonlinear!) by offering a variety of paths through the text. And whereas books are discrete, separate objects, hypertext may link to another text, thus blurring boundaries between texts and even between authors. One might think of the World Wide Web as one enormous hypertext, a realization of a concept that Theodore Nelson had already envisioned in the 1960s and that he termed "the Docuverse."

Finally, some electronic texts may also be termed hypermedia because they include or link to such digital media elements as sounds, video, 3-D imagery, and animations. (Consider the hypertext poetry of Ana Maria Uribe.)

New Vocabulary
Many new words have become part of the standard language dictionaries because of their popular use in connection with information technology. Likewise, the addition of such prefixes as cyber-, info-, techno-, virtual, and e- transforms ordinary words into "cutting-edge" terminology.

As with changes in technology, changes in language do not meet with unanimous approval. In an attempt to slow the incursion of English computer terminology into the French language, the French government banned the use of the term e-mail in 2003. This can be contrasted with German, where besides E-Mail one also encounters words such as downloaden, klicken, Server, and Software.

Talking to Computers
Voice recognition software, which enables a computer to respond to spoken words, is becoming more common. You have used such software yourself whenever you have heard a telephone recording say, "Please press or say one." Such software enables hands-free computing, which can be enormously beneficial to those who have difficulty using a keyboard or pointing device. Many predict that talking to a computer may one day become standard procedure for most computer users.