TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Server-based architectures encompass technologies that most of us associate with the World Wide Web. In this section of the book, we strive to redefine common notions of the Web and Internet to encompass new approaches to delivering content over the public network. Today, the conventional notion of a Website is quickly giving way to something entirely different. The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), for example, is being overtaken by the next-generation XML and XHTML standards. New forms of hardware all over the infrastructure from faster server CPUs and data bus technology to broadband optical pipes also promise to change our networks for the better.
What does this mean for content developers? Fundamentally, two developments are converging at the moment to reshape our concepts, development tools, and approaches: the maturing of dynamic database-driven Web content technologies and the growth of broadband deployment technologies. A third related development is the maturing of digital management and distribution technologies, which is covered in Section III.
The old idea of static Web pages of the late 1990s has given way to a more lively, interactive paradigm in the new millennium. Most of us still use the term "page," even though much of our content has migrated into personalized, active, full-motion windows onto virtual worlds.
Specifically, the types of tools and technologies that are driving this...
