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Lenny Zeltser - The World-Wide Web: Origins and Beyond
  
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The World-Wide Web: Origins and Beyond
As the popularity of the Internet increases, people become more aware of its colossal potential. The World-Wide Web (WWW) is a product of the continuous search for innovative ways of sharing information resources. This paper describes some of the historical aspects of the World-Wide Web development, as well as the alternative methods of universal information sharing through hypertext, such as the Xanadu project. The basic structure of the WWW and the Xanadu system is also discussed, in order to illustrate the general nature of global information networks.
What is the World-Wide Web?
Structure of the WWW
History of Hypertext
Origins of the WWW
What is Xanadu?
History of the Xanadu System
Some Weaknesses of the WWW
Conclusion: Success of the WWW
A Note About This Paper
References
What is the World-Wide Web?
People have dreamt of a universal information database since late
nineteen forties. In this database, not only would the data be
accessible to people around the world, but it would also "easily link
to other pieces of information, so that only the most important data
would be quickly found by a user."KH
Only recently has the technology caught up to make
such systems possible. The most popular system currently in use is
the World-Wide Web. The official description defines the WWW as a
"wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give
universal access to a large universe of documents."KH In
simpler terms, the Web is an Internet-based computer network that
allows users on one computer to access information stored on another
through the world-wide network.
Structure of the WWW
The WWW project is based on the principle of universal
readership: "if information is available, then any (authorized)
person should be able to access it from anywhere in the world."JL
The Web's implementation follows a standard client-server
model. In this model, a user relies on a program (the client) to
connect to a remote machine (the server), where the data is stored.
The architecture of the WWW (see Figure 1) is the
one of clients, such as Netscape, Internet Explorer, or Lynx, "which know how to
present data but not what its origin is, and servers, which
know how to extract data", but are ignorant of how it will be
presented to the user.TC2
Figure 1: Architecture of the WWW
One of the main features of the WWW documents is their hypertext
structure (see Figure 2).
On a graphic terminal, for instance, a particular
reference can be represented by underlined text, or an icon. "The
user clicks on it with the mouse, and the referenced document
appears."BCG This method makes
copying of information unnecessary: data needs only to be stored once,
and all referenced to it can be linked to the original document.
Figure 2: The basic Hypertext Model, Enhanced by Searches
History of hypertext
The term hypertext was coined by Ted Nelson in his book "Literary
Machines," where he defined it as "non-sequential writing," and only
later it became considered a medium limited to computers.DH
The earliest electronic model of such system was published in 1945 by
Vannevar Bush. In his reference to the Bush's article, David Hirmes
writes:
By 1945, Bush had realized that an era of information was
approaching. He commented: "The summation of human experience is
being expanded at a prodigious rate, [but] the means we use for
threading through the consequent maze to the momentarily important
item is the same as was used in the days of square-rigged ships."
Bush wrote of a "memex", a conceptual machine that could store
vast amounts of information, in which a user had the ability to create
information "trails": links of related text and illustrations. This
trail could then be stored and used for future reference. Bush
believed that using this associative method of information gathering
was not only practical in its own right, but was closer to the way the
mind ordered information.DH
Although "memex" was never implemented, in 1960 it inspired Ted
Nelson to develop the modern version of hypertext. In his newsletter
Nelson writes:
[It occurred to me] that the future of humanity is at the
interactive computer screen, that the new writing and movies will be
interactive and interlinked. It will be united by bridges of
transclusion and we need a world-wide network to deliver it with
royalty.TN2
Learning from Ted Nelson's ideas, Tim Berners-Lee of CERN
conceived the idea of the World-Wide Web in 1989.RCH
Origins of the WWW
The World-Wide Web began in March 1989 at CERN. (CERN was
originally named after its founding body the "Conseil Europeen pour la
Recherche Nucleaire," and is now called "European Laboratory for
Particle Physics.")GL
"CERN is a meeting place for physicists from all over the world,
who collaborate on complex physics, engineering and information
handling projects."CERN1 Thus, the need for the WWW
system arose "from the geographical dispersion of large
collaborations, and the fast turnover of fellows, students, and
visiting scientists," who had to get "up to speed on projects and
leave a lasting contribution before leaving."BCG
CERN possessed both the financial and computing resources
necessary to start the project. In the original proposalTC1
Berners-Lee outlined two phases of the project:
First, CERN would "make use of existing software and
hardware as well as implementing simple browsers for the user's
workstations, based on an analysis of the requirements for information
access needs by experiments."
Second, they would "extend the application area by also
allowing the users to add new material."
Berners-Lee expected each phase to take three months "with the
full manpower complement": he was asking for four software engineers
and a programmer. The proposal talked about "a simple scheme to
incorporate several different servers of machine-stored information
already available at CERN." This "scheme" was to use hypertext to
provide "a single user-interface to many large classes of stored
information such as reports, notes, data-bases, computer documentation
and on-line systems help."RCH
Set off in 1989, the WWW quickly gained great popularity among
Internet users. For instance, at 11:22 am of April 12, 1995, the WWW
server at the SEAS of the University of Pennsylvania "responded to 128
requests in one minute. Between 10:00 and 11:00, it responded to 5086
requests in one hour, or about 84 per minute,"CB Even years
after its creation, the Web is constantly maturing: in December 1994
the WWW was "growing at roughly 1 per cent a day -- a doubling period
of less than 10 weeks."NS
As popular as it is at the moment, the WWW is not the only
possible implementation of the hypertext concept. In fact, the theory
behind the WWW was based on a more general project "Xanadu," that is
being developed by Ted Nelson.
What is Xanadu?
As described in the list of Frequently Asked Questions about
Xanadu,XU Xanadu is the "original hypertext and interactive
multimedia system." Furthermore,
Xanadu is an overall paradigm - an ideal and general
model for all computer use, based on sideways connections among
documents and files.
It is intended to be especially free and fair, where all authors
and readers are considered equal. It is a complete business system for
electronic publishing based on this ideal with a win-win set of
arrangements, contracts and software for the sale of copyrighted
material in large and small amounts.
Ted Nelson named his project after the poem by S. T. Coleridge
"Kubla Khan" (or, "A Vision in a Dream"STC) , to suggest "the
magic place of literary memory where nothing is forgotten."XU
The reason that "nothing is forgotten" in the Xanadu system is
that, unlike the WWW, it has no concept of deletion. Once a document
has been published in the system, it will exist there forever. The
original document remains the same except for the fact that a newer
version can be created, "which would have references to the original
version(s)."VB
Xanadu revolves around a concept of "transclusion," which
emphasizes the reuse, intercomparison and understanding of materials
in different media. "Transcluded data is not copied from one object
to another, but merely pointed at and brought when necessary from the
original."TN1 Thus, "electronic publication within the
Xanadu system includes an implicit granting of the right to reference
(or re-publish) within the Xanadu system."CS
Xanadu publishing is principally based on selling copyrighted
materials. In order to make this possible, the system guarantees that
"the owner of any information be paid their chosen royalties on any
portion of their documents, no matter how small, whenever and wherever
they are used."XU
For example, when a reader accesses a document that quotes another
one, the system traces the quote to its origin -- the author of the
source document automatically receives royalties. This way, there is
no set price for a publication; instead, the author gets paid on
"per-access" basis.
History of the Xanadu system
In the period of 1960-1979, Ted Nelson had been working on various
designs of hypertext software. In 1972 the program implementation ran
in programming languages Algol and Fortran. In 1979 Nelson assembled
a new team for his project to redesign the system, with whose help the
design of a "universal networking server" for Xanadu was completed in
1981. In 1983 the Xanadu Operating Company, Inc. was formed to
complete development of the 1981 design.XU
In 1988, the company was purchased by Autodesk (makers of
AutoCAD), but in 1992 Autodesk "dropped" the project.TN2 The
reason why Autodesk gave up Xanadu is unclear. Perhaps, it was due to
the fact that despite the decades of research and development, the
group never officially released a single product. Or, perhaps, the
company management deemed that the sprint of the World-Wide Web made
further development of the system unnecessary.
After Nelson reorganized his project in 1993, he was invited to
work in Japan, where he is currently developing the Xanadu system.
"The nature and difference of my designs," says Nelson, "has not been
well understood in the American computer world, where ideas are
reduced to slogans and sales ratings. My ideas have been much better
understood abroad -- especially in Japan."TN1
Unfortunately, the Xanadu system does not yet exist, but the
World-Wide Web is a step in the right direction towards the "universal
interactive media." Yet, its current design has certain problems.
Some weaknesses of the WWW
The World-Wide Web began as a set of simple protocols and formats.
As time passed, the Web "began to be used as a testbed for various
sophisticated hypermedia and information retrieval concepts."RCH Unfortunately, these concepts were quickly absorbed by the
general WWW community. "This means that experimental extensions of
dubious use are now established parts of the Web."RCH
Another flaw in the current structure of the WWW is the presence
of many hypertext links that point to no longer existent documents.
These occur when authors rename or delete their works from the
Web.RCH
Since the system has no way of registering links to
one's document, an author can not notify his readers of the
reorganization. The Xanadu system, on the other hand, does not have
this problem since it does not allow users to delete documents from
the system.
Conclusion: Success of the WWW
What is the reason for the immense success of the World-Wide Web?
Perhaps, it can be explained by CERN's attitude towards the
development of the project. As soon as the basic outline of the WWW
was complete, CERN made the source code for its software publicly
available.CERN2
CERN has been encouraging collaboration by
academic and commercial parties since the onset of the project, and by
doing so it got millions of people involved in the growth of the Web.
The system requirements for running a WWW server are minimal, so
even administrators with limited funds had a chance to become
information providers. Because of the intuitive nature of hypertext,
many inexperienced computer users were able to connect to the network.
Furthermore, the simplicity of the HyperText Markup Language, used for
creating interactive documents, allowed these users to contribute to
the expanding database of documents on the Web. Also, the nature of
the World-Wide Web provided a way to interconnect computers running
different operating systems, and display information created in a
variety of existing media formats (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Unification of Media Formats and Computing Platforms
In short, the possibilities for hypertext in the world-wide
environment are endless. With the computer industry growing at
today's pace, no one knows what awaits us at the turn of the 21st
century.
A Note About This Paper
I wrote this paper in April 1995 in an attempt to explore the origins of the
World-Wide Web, which was beginning its explosive growth at that time. As I write this
note, 10 years have passed since the paper's birth. It has withstood the test of time well;
referring to historical facts, it continues to be relevant today. In 2005 I briefly
edited this paper, mainly to update links in the References section, but also to
remove the mention of the Mosaic browser and to add Internet Explorer.
One arcane term that remains in the paper for sentimental reasons is "the WWW," which
the reader should read as "the Web."
References
VB V. Balasubramanian,
"The State of the Art Review on Hypermedia Issues And Applications," December 1993.
URL: http://www.e-papyrus.com/hypertext_review.
January 2005.
CB Charles H. Buchholtz, "Eniac's WWW Server,"
a posting to USENET newsgroup upenn.seas.eniac.new on April 12, 1995.
CERN1
" Joint World Wide Web Initiative."
URL: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Prospectus/Hosts.html.
January 2005.
CERN2 "The
Policy of the WWW Project at CERN."
URL: http://www.w3.org/Policy.html. January 2005
STC Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
"Kubla Khan," 1798.
URL: http://www.lib.virginia.edu/etext/stc/Coleridge/poems/Kubla_Khan.html.
January 2005.
GL
"Glossary."
URL: http://www.w3.org/History/1993/WWW/Conditions/Glossary.html.
January 2005.
TN1
"Nelson Going To Japan, Will Design Media At New Hyperlab," from The Ted Nelson News Letter, Number 3, October 1994. URL:
http://www.sensemedia.net/993. 1995.
DH David Hirmes
"Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) File for alt.hypertext," January 1993. URL:
http://www.kevcom.com/words/ht93/hypertext.faq.txt.
January 2005. The FAQ refers to the Vannevar Bush article titled "As We May Think,"
which as published in the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic Monthly; it is available at the following URL:
http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~dduchier/misc/vbush/awmt.html.
KH Kevin
Hughes "Entering the World-Wide Web: A Guide to Cyberspace," Honolulu Community College,
September 1993.
URL: http://www.cib.unibo.it/intro/www-guide/www.guide.html.
January 2005.
JL Joe Levy,
"The World in a Web," The Guardian, page 19, November 11, 1993.
URL: http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/pub/WWW/Bibliography/Press.html.
January 2005.
TN2 Ted Nelson,
"The Story So Far,"
from The Ted Nelson News Letter, Number 3, October 1994.
URL: http://www.sensemedia.net/993. 1995.
NS New Scientist Magazine, December 17,
1994 Issue. URL: http://www.newscientist.com.
RCH Liam Relihan, Tony Cahill & Michael G. Hinchey,
"Untangling the World-Wide Web."
URL: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=192531.
January 2005.
CS Craig Sanders,
"Xanadu—More
Than Just Electronic Publishing and Document Storage."
URL: http://xanadu.com.au/xanadu/desktop.html.
January 2005.
BCG Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau,
J.F. Groff & B.Pollermann,
"World-Wide Web:
An Information Infrastructure for High-Energy Physics,"
presented at the Software Engineering,
Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems for High Energy and Nuclear
Physics, La Londe-les-Maures, France, January 1992. URL:
http://www.npl.washington.edu/doc/www-for-hep.ps.
January 2005.
TC1 Tim Berners-Lee & Robert Caillian,
"World-Wide Web: Proposal for HyperText," CERN Memo, November 1990. URL:
http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Proposal. January 2005.
TC2 Tim Berners-Lee & Robert Cailliau,
"World-Wide Web," presenting at the Computing in High Energy Physics conference in Annecy, France,
September 23-17, 1992. URL: http://www.freehep.org/chep92www.pdf. January 2005.
XU
"Xanadu FAQ." URL: http://xanadu.com.au/xanadu/faq.html. January 2005.
Post-Scriptum
This paper was written in 1995.
Copyright © 1995-2008 Lenny Zeltser. All rights reserved. RSS Feed.
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