The Web That Wasn’t

Google Tech Talks
October, 23 2007

ABSTRACT

For most of us who work on the Internet, the Web is all we have ever really known. It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without browsers, URLs and HTTP. But in the years leading up to Tim Berners-Lee’s world-changing invention, a few visionary information scientists were exploring alternative systems that often bore little resemblance to the Web as we know it today. In this presentation, author and information architect Alex Wright will explore the heritage of these almost-forgotten systems in search of promising ideas left by the historical wayside.

The presentation will focus on the pioneering work of Paul Otlet, Vannevar Bush, and Doug Engelbart, forebears of the 1960s and 1970s like Ted Nelson, Andries van Dam, and the Xerox PARC team, and more recent forays like Brown’s Intermedia system. We’ll trace the heritage of these systems and the solutions they suggest to present day Web quandaries, in hopes of finding clues to the future in the recent technological past.

Speaker: Alex Wright
Alex Wright is an information architect at the New York Times and the author of Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages. Previously, Alex has led projects for The Long Now Foundation, California Digital Library, Harvard University, IBM, Microsoft, Rollyo and Sun Microsystems, among others. He maintains a personal Web site at http://www.alexwright.org/

Duration : 0:59:34


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25 Responses to “The Web That Wasn’t”

  1. aceyage Says:

    It’s real. Pretty …
    It’s real. Pretty neat, isn’t it?

  2. twocsies Says:

    The Mother of All …
    The Mother of All Demos. Was that real? Better than most PowerPoint presentations that I’ve seen!

  3. isabngeryer Says:

    Nice try. Keep it …
    Nice try. Keep it up check out esteembpo + com for social media marketing. dthtyky

  4. xeonsparks Says:

    Great talk, thanks!
    Great talk, thanks!

  5. QuantumAnomaly Says:

    Akashic records = …
    Akashic records = the ultimate Google.

  6. sacalante Says:

    Please forgive me …
    Please forgive me in advance but i gonna make a little joke about the teacher: He is not DOS or 3.1 he is 3.11
    Thanks for teach other way apart students of the classroom.
    Kind Regards.

  7. sacalante Says:

    i know what i say, …
    i know what i say, tell me what i mean with these random numbers in net language: 1, 3,4, 2004, 22,006, etc., i f you don’t remember is an easy way to keep in mind how to establish a redundant net, hubs, etc., all over the world we need better teachers and the net is not, because we are to far of the people who need a fast and focus lesson. He just need to think like a kid or ask his kids how they see his work, they are amazing.
    Kind Regards.

  8. sacalante Says:

    After arpanet, with …
    After arpanet, with 4 flopies you could arise an intranet or today monitor the traffic into your net, and outside, i’m ms, but it’s too slow than i prefer a kde distro to make well and easy a net, accord to the us army today, with a little command line orders, and is shell against virus etc., for free. i’m thinking in non profit organizations or individual users, He don’t fell what he is talking. and he prefer to take control over his hands than saw the audience reactions. KInd Regards.

  9. NathalieDmusic Says:

    n 1908 a lady named …
    n 1908 a lady named sally rusa was in the woods looking for a dog until a ghost came and killed her so if ur reading this u will find a bloody body in your closet hanging there haunting you and will kill you and ur family and if u want to stop this just sends this to 6 vids in 30 mins

  10. hrhodes3 Says:

    Beautiful Talk …
    Beautiful Talk Thank you

  11. alsadig2009 Says:

    This is Agreat work …
    This is Agreat work that I always listen to one of these talks.
    thank for providing these nice lecs here.

  12. Akiradft Says:

    Nice Nice Video. I …
    Nice Nice Video. I really loved your video. Youtube can be a great et for you. If you need any help getting your video exposed, check out this site called tubeviews [dot net] It has really done wonders for me, I have built 3 Channels up with videos at top in position and this is my forth channel i’m going to working on.

    Awesome!

  13. jfreijser Says:

    Thanks for this …
    Thanks for this great talk!
    I was aware of the Bush-Engelbart-Nelson-Berners Lee lineage, but was unaware of Paul Otlet. Truly amazing ideas, unfortunately lost to the world for so long. His ideas of allowing a social environment to evolve for a document, depending on who consulted it and for what reason, is as visionary as Bush’ idea of trail blazing. I am still waiting for a nice trail blazer implementation for the web as it is now.

  14. KevHarkins1 Says:

    part of what he is …
    part of what he is presenting is basicly taking several pieces of information and taking someparts of it and combining to make a more relative piece of information which fundamently is edited and therefore easily misinterpretated

  15. seobro Says:

    I still remember …
    I still remember PLATO in college. It was a method of creating computer content back in the 70’s before the internet.

  16. nicegurl112 Says:

    anyway, tick tock …
    anyway, tick tock tick tock,

    i want some johnson.

  17. Valetudo21 Says:

    great talk. VERY …
    great talk. VERY interesting!

  18. F00dTube Says:

    Yea! And did you …
    Yea! And did you know that the wtc towers fell faster than free fall?

  19. vaundawg Says:

    boxa, tesla was …
    boxa, tesla was opposed to einsteins theory of relativity and was obsessed with refuting it. he refused to acnowledge even that space might be curved – something we observe frequently now and even rely on to determine the locations of distant heavenly bodies. his theory of how something could move faster than light has been disproven several times over. it’s pseudoscience. sorry.

  20. boxa888 Says:

    why have i proven …
    why have i proven his one wire transmission in my basement, its not properly tuned but shows the principle very well. this same principle leads to the faster than light speeds and energy transfer through the earth. well whatever, believe what you want, every one has an opinion, and everyone can have the ability to find what is reality. one wire transmission is included in it! pce

  21. vaundawg Says:

    I have researched …
    I have researched it. Tesla was a charlatan. He was a fraud. None of his ‘devices’ actually worked; he was a pioneer into electronics but was quickly overshadowed by people with devices that actually worked. His imagination ran away with him and he forgot about real invention – he just started making up.

    There are designs out there for lots of ‘flying machines’ in the 1800s, too. And guess what? Only one of them really worked. Imagination is great, but results matter. Tesla didn’t get any.

  22. boxa888 Says:

    but it is the first …
    but it is the first. tesla states around 1890-95 his wireless system will send power, voice, pictures,moving pictures, writing,exchange ideas, business information to all points(yes thats the internet). he also states cell phone devices as small as watches that could be used to talk to other people on the planet, his cell phones didnt need charging either lol. you have to reseach it before you say anything!

  23. vaundawg Says:

    what boxa888 says …
    what boxa888 says is not true. ignore him

  24. boxa888 Says:

    yes his equation …
    yes his equation was velocity = 300,000 * cosecant (_ degrees) 1 degree from the tower is like 80,000,000,000 km/sec! going to 90 degrees(equator) the energy hits the speed of light, once it goes pasrt the equator it speeds up to faster than light speeds. its all to do with the sherical nature of the earth! its incredible this was 100 yrs ago and the internet was going to be so fast and perfect. i put up information on his system if your interested, he was the first to make the internet!

  25. boxa888 Says:

    everyone forgets …
    everyone forgets the first internet. nikola tesla made a internet 100 years ago, with cell phone devices, it was to do the same things as our internet of today does. the data was sent through the earth at faster than lights speeds, also industrial energy could be sent as well. the first commercial tower was wardenclyffe, his reseach was done at colorado springs. its a very important part of internet history, please reseach,i put up sonme basic info if your interested. thank you!!

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