Many existing information management systems that try to capture relationships between real world entities are not able to express them completely due to limitations in their structure and information retrieval techniques. The hypermedia paradigm provides a new and improved approach to developing complex information management systems in order to increase their effectiveness and usage. In this chapter, we review some of the applications based on the concept of hypermedia.
The hypermedia paradigm can be extended to many traditional information management systems as well as emerging complex information systems. Some of the application areas that can be greatly improved by incorporating hypermedia technology include online documentation, electronic encyclopedias, medical information systems, interactive kiosks, learning systems, idea processing environments, decision support systems, issue based information systems, collaborative systems, software engineering and many many other applications.