Paul Otlet, visioning a web in 1934
Attila Gárdos1 HN recommender · recommended in 1 month, 2014–2022
explainer · general · evergreen · 2014–2022 on HN
A one-minute clip about Paul Otlet, the Belgian bibliographer who in 1934 imagined users accessing a remote database through an electric telescope over a phone line. It presents his vision as a precursor of the web.
Brought up whenever early predictions of the internet and the web's origins are discussed.
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4 comments from Hacker News
I always have to mention Paul Otlet, when the topic of early predictions of technology comes up. Too bad he was all but forgotten. ▶ this video link
He's not predicting the internet. He's predicting increasing customizations of products. Alvin Toffler continues McLuhan's themes in his book Future Shock [1], which was also not about the internet. Someone who did predict the internet was Paul Otlet in 1934 [2] [1] link [2] ▶ this video
Are you referring to the stripped down SGML, RPC or hyperlinks? Or the combination? Because all three have been around much before. In many flavours and mixes. The WWW variant’s adoption had more to do with politics than scientific/technical merit. ▶ this video link or link
and while at it some links to the real origins of the web: For ADD-ers: ▶ this video The story: link Long PR story short: RPC was already prevalent, that is how you control(led) your stuff remotely. Like Tim did on his day job. Today, if you'd ask for a NeXT-like toy, you'd be denied were you an average Eastern member of CERN (n.b. western equivalent). As a true westerner, TBL asked for it and got one. Put the gopher link address ptr in the reserved field of the text font properties (where things like bold and italics properties are stored) and voilà. Mix in a simplified SGML for markup (as it was customary back then for typefaces and layout on printers). One could also hire cheap disposable students to actually write the web clients and servers to be cross platform (the web's virtue/value). Would the "web" have just ran on NeXT, it would be long extinct, let alone have taken off. Clicking on text is how you used Oberon or even Genera Document Examiner (perhaps even over the network). It was the spirit of the times. Even Jobs demoed a WYSIWYG client-server application in 5 minutes on the NeXT. What an insult. On linking and hypertext: all post-war era anglo-saxon stuff is spin (including Vannevar and Tim invented the web myths). The real stuff comes from Belgium, as did Tim's boss, btw.