MecklerWeb was one of those sites that began with great promise and fanfare, but quickly revealed itself as primarily an advertising ploy for Meckler publications. This is particularly ironic in a company that purports to be an intellectual leader of the Internet revolution. Whereas companies such as the New York Times and Dow Jones, whom one would suppose to be much less Internet-savvy and receptive to that culture, have had the courage to put substantial portions of their copyrighted properties online, Meckler offers little more than snippets and links.
VRML World is an attempt to collect some of the best that developers of virtual reality technology presently have to offer on the Web. It offers previews, product reviews and news, as well as sample feature articles. In the earlier days, they offered VR Metropolis, initially another VR news source, which also offered developers a platform from which to display their wares. Or as a Meckler promo writer puts it, "MecklerWeb is currently offering designers of virtual worlds an opportunity to post their creations here--at no cost. VR research teams may want to post worlds demonstrating their approaches to VR in surgery, in training, or in engineering. Or perhaps a someone working in a garage has created a VR fantasy world to blow the socks off the industry. VR Metropolis will be the venue for viewing these." (from the home page). This has apparently been dropped, but there is still an attempt to offer a catalog of links. It is billed as a gathering place for all kinds of VR information from scholarly papers to shared fantasy worlds. So far, though, it serves mainly as a news service for developments in the world of VR. A site full of potential, but not much developed yet.
The offerings here are scanty and it is clear that Mecklermedia is resisting the trend among other Internet publishers of helping to develop the Web by offering substantive content. Instead they have chosen to present a teaser to attract subscriptions to their paper publications. The organization is simple, but effective, with adequate standardization from page to page. On the question of authority, the user must rely on the reputation of Meckler because it is almost impossible to discover what individuals are responsible for the site. Eventually, I did find a few names, but their relationship to the page was vague. A search engine for the whole Iworld site which includes several Meckler publications offers keyword searching, but it is not easy to find. Nor does it seem to be complete since it doesn't even list VRML World as a possible search site. The "Help" link also seems under construction since none of the links on the image map are active. Overall, it conveys the impression of a site half-constructed and abandoned, which makes one question the commitment of Meckler to this new media, especially if one compares efforts by similar publishers such as CMP Publications.
No problem with accessibility.
c|net
CMP Publications' TechWeb