Original: Spring 1995 / Revised: March 6, 1996 / Revised June 12, 2001

The PEPI concept states that online information should be "Personalized" for the user and wherever possible by the user, "Evolutionary" in that another person may add their thoughts or images to create something new, and "Participatory" in that the channels of "Information" exchange should always be open.

The future of the Internet is "interactivity". It is a future where the user is in control. It is our challenge to create a system wherein that can happen.

Since the fall of 1994 I have been working on a concept that I call PEPI. PEPI stands for "Personalized. Evolutionary, Participatory, Information. It is a concept where the user "requests" and is "served", "profiles and is served" and "creates and is served". The user is elevated to information creator status via the data they "create and authorize use of" whether through a personal preferences file or a interaction process.

It is essential that all Subscriber data available through "PEPI" interactivity be authorized for use according to a "positive-option policy". This policy states that the user must say "yes" to "specific uses" of "specific data" and that "no other uses will be allowed unless authorized".

For information marketers PEPI means that seeing, hearing and telling must be transformed into a "Personalized, Evolutionary, Participatory, Information" (PEPI) stream. A stream that the Subscriber not only experiences and responds to but one that they can alter and evolve with as well by adding their own information stream - many to many - one to many - one to one.

PEPI is a concept that benefits the Subscriber the information provider and the advertisers.

PEPI focuses on creating an environment where Subscribers can insert on their "personal home pages" any messages or any hyperlinks to any pages of their choice that are accessible on the World Wide Web. This will enable the information provider and potential advertisers to measure the distribution of information offerings, get to know the "serious" audience. It will in addition help them to establish brand penetration and product identity results through looking at "viewer links" on Subscriber home pages.

Implementing the PEPI concept through an easy to use interface you can transform a "information service" into a method to get to know and then get to sell marketing process. The theory is that "if you request what you want then you are willing to read it, consider it carefully and pay for the delivery method". By creating a method where a Subscriber can create a "personal home page" that they are free to add "links" ("viewer links") to you simultaneously create a way to get to know the wants, needs and desires of that Subscriber. Offering a person what they want, desire or need is the first step to creating a life-long customer. Do that on the Internet without infringing on your customers privacy is what PEPI is all about.

The PEPI concept is a new kind of information system. One that makes use of data that the Subscriber freely makes available on the "surface" of his or her personal home page. Personal Home Page driven sites will become ever more important as the masses come online, PEPI is the conceptual and implementational tool that we can use to help us build them.

• The PEPI concept will evolve as more people experiment and share their experiences...

• The PEPI concept can be applied to everything from WWW sites to email...

• Across the WWW image rich documents are on the rise...

My goal as a web site developer is to make entry into this world less painful and more rewarding for the corporations and organizations I work with... and more pleasurable and meaningful for site visitors and Subscribers.

I'm working on implementations for applying the PEPI model for WWW sites as well as independent marketers and publishers.

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