The First Analysis Of The Web: Vague, But Exciting

from the true,-that dept

Wed, Apr 18th 2012 11:59pm — Mike Masnick

It's pretty common knowledge that Tim Berners-Lee is credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web, which we all know and love today. However, if you haven't ever done so, it's actually quite fun to read through his original proposal for the web, as a new way for managing information. Here's a snippet:

In providing a system for manipulating this sort of information, the hope would be to allow a pool of information to develop which could grow and evolve with the organisation and the projects it describes. For this to be possible, the method of storage must not place its own restraints on the information. This is why a "web" of notes with links (like references) between them is far more useful than a fixed hierarchical system. When describing a complex system, many people resort to diagrams with circles and arrows. Circles and arrows leave one free to describe the interrelationships between things in a way that tables, for example, do not. The system we need is like a diagram of circles and arrows, where circles and arrows can stand for anything.

We can call the circles nodes, and the arrows links. Suppose each node is like a small note, summary article, or comment. I'm not over concerned here with whether it has text or graphics or both. Ideally, it represents or describes one particular person or object

But perhaps even cooler, as pointed out to us by Mathew Ingram, is an image of the actual physical copy of the first version of this proposal that Berners-Lee gave his boss, Mike Sendall. At the top of the cover Sendall scribbled, "Vague, but exciting."

Amusingly, one could argue that description still applies -- and, in fact, is part of the reason why the web has been so phenomenally successful. Its amazing openness may have been "vague" but it was also that vagueness and openness that not only made the web so exciting, but made it possible for the rest of the world to fill in details to make it do whatever people wanted.

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Filed Under: history, tim berners-lee, web

11 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2012 @ 1:45am

The guy who invented the internet should be responsible for all the piracy!
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moronnorom (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 3:53am

Al Gore is so screwed.
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moronnorom (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 3:55am

Re:
Supposed to be a reply to AC #1. I'm a moron (obviously).
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2012 @ 3:56am

Vague, being the key word.

I don't blame him either; anthropology, sociology, etc. are not his strong suits, needless to say...
He should not be expected to deliver some sort of definitive opinion.
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Rich Kulawiec, 19 Apr 2012 @ 4:43am

The web is only beginning...
...and it's still not the most important or interesting component of the Internet. Not that it doesn't show great promise -- it most certainly does, and some marvelous things have been done with it already. But contrary to the perception of many newbies (who often believe that web == Internet, that it's always been there, and that it always will be) it's just another experiment in a long line of experiments. It remains to be seen whether it can establish itself as something of lasting value.

My guess is (a) that it will but (b) it won't look much like the web of today. There are massive improvements required in semantics, privacy, and security -- many of which are either in the architecture or design stages already. There's also, unfortunately, the possibility that it will be legislated and litigated into oblivion by utterly clueless politicians and rapaciously greedy patent trolls, monopolists, obsolete businesses, and "cyberwarfareomghackerssecurity" companies.
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kubaa785 (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 7:03am

Nice article. Thanks for sharing it
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terry (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 7:46am

Al Gore is always misquoted about the Internet
He never said he "invented" the Internet...

he used the word "created" instead. Seriously, find the actual audio clip and listen.

When he claimed he "created the Internet" he was referring to his legislation to increase the backbone infrastructure.

I guess it doesn't sound as good though to say "I helped pass legislation that made the Internet faster" as it does to simply say "I created the Internet".

Maybe Al Gore invented pants though.
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TtfnJohn (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 8:07am

Re: The web is only beginning...
Attempting to kill off the "vagueness" of the Web or it's essential randomness through legislation, litigation, patent trolls etc would kill off the Web itself, IMHO, by taking away the core reason(s) why it works so well. It's the same dynamic that was at work in the SOPA/PIPA debate where ignorance and desperate (?) monopolists sought to censor the internet by messing with DNS.
It's the "vagueness" and openess of both the Web and the Internet that it rides on that's essential to why it works as well as it does.

And continues to provide surprises and excitement. :-)
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BeeAitch (profile), 19 Apr 2012 @ 12:22pm

Re: Al Gore is always misquoted about the Internet
"...Tim Berners-Lee is credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web..."

Two points:

The article says he "is credited as the inventor", not "he said he invented".

The article says "World Wide Web", not "internet".

If you think that the WWW and the internet are the same thing, you should do some research on that subject...
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Terry, 19 Apr 2012 @ 7:17pm

Re: Re: Al Gore is always misquoted about the Internet
If you think Tim Berners Lee and Al Gore are the same person, you should do some research on that subject...
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Terry, 19 Apr 2012 @ 7:17pm

Re: Re: Al Gore is always misquoted about the Internet
If you think Tim Berners Lee and Al Gore are the same person, you should do some research on that subject...
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