I agree that the debate has little to do with content vs flash, usability vs looks. While it is great to have good books, the primary site of waste and problems for academic and .org design has little to do with theories of usability and design. Sites of waste and problems (among others): sites are designed by committee (and committee rarely agrees). sites overseen by administrators who do not use the web. spend too much money on outside vendor -- does not understand discipline or organization (and nobody knows how to update). spend too little money on student designers who leave the next semester with all passwords (and nobody knows how to update). IT controls and will not allow variations and does not understand differing needs. IT does not control and cannot support the thousands of variations and micro-startups within each department. No discipline specific images can be used on a web site because it may "favor" one department area over another. Site at the center of a faction dispute within department, college, program, organization. content limited by copyright and differing "visions" of what the site should do. On and on. I am sure others have many better examples. It would be nice to see a book that addresses the real issues of site design. Dean Rehberger Associate Director of Matrix Associate Professor Michigan State University 310 Auditorium East Lansing, MI 48824-1120 rehberger@mail.matrix.msu.edu matrix.msu.edu/rehberger wk: (517) 355-9300 fax: (517) 355-8363 hm: (517) 347-7372