These are rough notes, not quotes:

Presentation description from the program: The Web That Wasn't:

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 hypertext systems that often bore little resemblance to the Web as we know it today.

Presenter: Alex Wright (Information Architect, The New York Times)

Alex Wright: "The superior technology does not always succeed in the marketplace. The same can be true about the web. In some ways, its the lowest common denominator. Some of the precursors":

1. Charles Cutter (1883) - Notable librarian. Wrote a piece called "What the library will be like in 1983" in 1883. Described something that had a keyboard that you could pull up a book and it would be stored someplace else. And they could be networked.

2. H.G. Wells (1893) - The world brain. Emerging electronic infrastructure would enable a vast network of information -- an encyclopedia -- he went further and envisioned that it would come to life (hey, he was a sci fi writer).

3. Teilard de Chardin - French Jesuit priest. A sort of etherised human consciousness...a single organized unbroken membrane over the earth that will "pave the way for a revolution" The Catholic church thought it was heretical and banned him from publishing. The thought it was threatening. Acquired a pretty loyal following among a group of Jesuits. Marshall McLuhan adapted his work in his theories.

4. Paul Otlet - Early part of 20th century. He thought librarians got it wrong because they focused on helping people get to books, while people are wanting to get into the information within a book -- not a book. You need to find a way to get the information out of a book and into a new framework. In the early 30s, he developed a framework for this idea and actually got funding from Belgium government to do it, the Mundaneum and with it, the Universal Decimal Classification. Unfortunately, the Nazis destroyed it and he died penniless and in obscurity. Many of his ideas are amazingly prescient of web-type concepts, i.e., the value of "links." The entire system ran on paper and was top-down. What would have happened if it worked? There would have been more of a top-down orientation and ontology. You can see somethings "like it" today: Facet maps and "vote links" -- recognizes the opportunities you can do more in placing values on

5. Vannevar Bush (Van-E-ver) - Major figure in post WWII environment. President of Carnegie Institution. Remembered now for an essay as, "As We May Think." He proposed the idea called the memex. Users could sit down at desk and pull up from a screen on microfilm on one screen and pull up a relating document on another screen and the user could add something that "links" the two documents. That would be stored and those links could become a part of the record. (Also, he other ideas about cameras attached to forehead.) His focus was on the value users bring to making connections between different types of information. He had no intention of building this -- it was a concept. Even though he's credited as forebearer of the web, some of what he conceived was more sophisticated:

6. Eugene Garfield: Founder of Science Citation Index. Inventor of citation ranking. He felt like most indexes were very limited because it depends on a person reading an article. He was more interested in "the citations" -- Who is citing this document in their papers? And how many people are citing the articles they write? (Sound familiar - it's the idea behind PageRank). What would his web look like? Google. In their paper on PageRank, Sergy and Larry's first citation was Eugene Garfield.

7. Doug Engelbart. Former Stanford Research Institute Researcher. Read Bush's article and decided to pursue it. Today he's known as inventor of the mouse, but that was the lesser of The oNLine System. System of organizing network information and sharing it. In 1968, he gave "the mother of all demos" in San Francisco that displayed the way people could work together and collaborate on documents using a computer-assisted, online system. His ideas were more focused on people working together on the web, not as something one person works on. In recent years, He's still active and his visions are far beyond what the web is today. His proteges went on to found

8. Ted Nelson: If not for him, we wouldn't be in this room. Coined the term "hypertext." He is sometimes characterized as "half crazy" but is really a brilliant guy who is an inspiring figure. Spent much of his career on "the fringes of respectability." He was fascinated with computers but thought the early computer scientists were getting it all wrong because they saw computers as "calculators." He thought computers should be able to be used by anyone for personal expression. He self-published his books. In 1965, he coined the phrase hypertext. His books have a revolutionary vibe to them. Early 70s, very, power-to-the-people. One book to read: Literary Machines, spelled out his concept machine: Xanadu. His idea of what became the web: A single program, running throughout the network. "I mean non-sequential writing text that branches and allows choices to the reader. Nelson-isms: He could make up words that described concepts: Transclusion, hyperbooks. Deep thoughts on intellectual property and identity management. What would the web look like today if his vision had been followed? More Transclusion. What does Nelson think of the web? Not much. "I don't buy it."

9. Andries Van Dam: Early collaborator with Nelson. Created the first working hypertext systems. Instead of having a mouse, they used light pen and foot pedal. Developed in 70s and 80s -- a multimedia editor. IRIS.

10. Xerox Parc: Built Notecards. Used the metaphor of "cards." They also coined the term "browser card" to view other cards and a storage box.

11. Apple Hypercard: Allowed people to use

12. Tim Behrners Lee

What are some of themes that are universal in these visions of the web: A top-down layer and bottom-up layer. Transparent links (what's coming and going). Managed identity. Treating users as creators were a part of the first ideas. The web has treated users a consumers.

What does this point to?

Reading list

HG Wells, World Brain

Teilhard de Chardin, Phenoenomn of Man

Boyd Rayward, Visions of Xanadu

Nannevar Bush, As we may think

Ted Nelson, Literary Machines

Doug Engelbart: Augmenting Human Intelligence

Lee: Weaving the Web

Alex Wright's book: Glut: Mastering Information Through the Ages (Amz link)