For our purposes, it is convenient to consider dissemination of information separately from its archiving, though in pre-computer times the two would be discussed together under the term "publication".
Dissemination of information in the form of books, journals and reprints is familiar, but electronic media are beginning to displace paper because they are cheaper to produce, distribute and store, and information on them can be more flexibly accessed. Some journals and books are already available on CD-ROMs, and there is no doubt that many will eventually be placed on the Internet. This tendency toward paperless publication is inevitable, and will greatly benefit scientists in technologically advanced countries. Many Third World researchers, however, will not share in this benefit because of their scarcity of computers and lack of effective connections to the Internet - as pointed out in the last section of an article on pp.92-99 of the August 1995 issue of Scientific American. The gap in available opportunities between the haves and the have-nots might very well increase as a result of this advancing technology.
For those of us with easy access to the Internet, electronic dissemination of information will become increasingly advantageous. Economies in production, distribution and storage have already been mentioned. More voluminous data and greater numbers of images can be made widely available, than is possible on paper. Data sets not sufficiently refined or digested for formal publication could be made accessible (with appropriate caveats) via FTP sites to other researchers who might be able to use them. That part of the information-handling spectrum between data gathering and "respectable" publication, now occupied by "gray literature", will be replaced by much more effective electronic dissemination.