In the case of graduate-level theses research and in academic research generally, there can be little excuse these days not to offer ones data, methodology, literature review, and evolving conclusions online for general or limited consumption.
The idea of a "3D Thesis," where fellow academics can easily access and offer advice on a student's work, and where the visitor can learn more about specific areas by clicking deeper or not into the content, is highly appealing to the contemporary graduate student. The ability to learn tangentially by checking definitions of key terms, authoring notes and details, resources, and data links is of high value to both the author and the reader in a work designed for academic consumption, where it is always difficult for the author(s) and their advisers to determine to what degree assumptions should be explained or justified within the text of a traditional linear paper thesis. Tangential reading, where the reader can delve deeper into certain topics by clicking deeper into certain areas, while skimming or ignoring areas where the reader is already familiar with the material or disinterested in the details of the sub-heading or topic, for better or worse, has become the modern reading style of the internet age.
While electronic accessibility to traditionally written articles and theses has been a great leap forward for academic research, versions of theses written and designed specifically for online consumption can take online accessibility a good deal further in its evolution. Of course, this author is under no illusions. A thesis available entirely electronically, without a traditional paper complement (which meets all the current graduate school requirements) would not be institutionally acceptable quite yet (in fact, such an online version would probably be ignored from a certification perspective).. But can the day when this will be the norm, with the linear, dimensionless thesis all but ignored, be far off?
