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Even Before Memex, a Plan For a Networked World

Posted by timothy on from the da-vinci-invented-everything dept.

phlurg writes "The New York Times presents an amazing article on 'the Mundaneum,' a sort of proto-WWW conceived of by Paul Otlet in 1934. 'In 1934, Otlet sketched out plans for a global network of computers (or "electric telescopes," as he called them) that would allow people to search and browse through millions of interlinked documents, images, audio and video files. He described how people would use the devices to send messages to one another, share files and even congregate in online social networks. He called the whole thing a "réseau," which might be translated as "network" — or arguably, "web."' A fascinating read." (You may be reminded of Vannevar Bush's "Memex," which shares some of the same ideas.)

11 of 119 comments (clear)

  1. Good for him ... by YeeHaW_Jelte · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It shows the difficult part of ideas isn't dreaming them up, it's actually realizing them.

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    1. Re:Good for him ... by njfuzzy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm not sure I would agree with that. The best ideas are ones that seem obvious in retrospect, but had never been considered before. In some cases, implementation can be trivial, the real revolution is in proposing the solution.

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    2. Re:Good for him ... by samkass · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seeing as no one else did it in the intervening 50 years, I'd not be too quick to call that the easy part.

      What's interesting to me is to see if any of this stuff can be submitted as prior art to invalidate as many of the recent web patents as possible.

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      E pluribus unum
    3. Re:Good for him ... by txoof · · Score: 4, Informative

      It shows the difficult part of ideas isn't dreaming them up, it's actually realizing them.

      I disagree, look at the sketch books of Da Vinci, the man was clearly a genius. Just because he didn't have the technology to create the parts he needed, doesn't detract from the thought and creativity required to conceive them.

      Otlet was definitely a visionary. He saw a need for an accessible and indexable catalog of information that was linked by context. Even 100 years ago people began choking on massive amounts of paper. Otlet was arguably the first to conceive of a novel solution to this problem. Just because he didn't have access to electronic mass storage and computing power doesn't mean that his idea wasn't brilliant.

      As other posters have mentioned, just because hyper links and networks seem obvious today, 70 years ago the idea was just starting to form. Someone had to have the insight to envision them.

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    4. Re:Good for him ... by call-me-kenneth · · Score: 5, Informative
      That's my cue to point out that E.M. Forster not only predicted the network and it's social effects, but forecast doom when the system runs out of capacity and engineering clue. If you haven't read it yet, read it now - it's short and great.

      The Machine Stops. (Written in 1909, as in ninety-nine years ago. In England.)

    5. Re:Good for him ... by TheLink · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's actually why I think patents aren't very useful.

      If someone is really innovative even 30 years of monopoly isn't enough to help them - since most people won't get it.

      But 30 years of monopoly would be terrible for > 99.99% of the approved patents (which are mostly pretty obvious - e.g. once you encounter the problem, the solution is easily found by anyone competent in the field).

      The real innovators are so many steps ahead - they'll think of various problem, then the solutions, and then the problems with the solutions, and then the solutions for those problems, and so on, till they are decades ahead of everyone else.

      As for those who say you should actually implement stuff to be able to claim a patent, I give the example of Douglas Engelbart and his team - they actually implemented a lot of stuff, and most people didn't get it till many decades later.

      So to me I don't really think there should be patents on inventions - nowadays > 99.99% of them are just trivial junk that clutter up everything and get in the way of real progress. As is they are a net minus to the world. Giving 20 year monopolies to such "innovators" is a travesty, and allowing them to make a minor change and thus extend the monopoly for even longer is crazy - how does that encourage innovation?

      If you want to reward innovators, I'd say we should have Prizes for Innovation that are awarded years after - much like the Nobel Prizes. After 10 or 20 years we should be able to tell whether something is really innovative and important.

      Perhaps the application fees could go to a fund used to award the prizes and for administrative costs. Money could also come from other sponsors.

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  2. Reseau by langelgjm · · Score: 4, Informative

    He called the whole thing a "reseau," which might be translated as "network"

    Indeed, "reseau" (but with an accent, which didn't show up when I pasted it) is the word used in French for "network", in both computer and other senses.

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  3. This is not like Memex by sp332 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Memex was (or would have been) a personal workstation, not a networked device. True, it had hyperlinking, but only among documents on the same device. This Mundaneum seems to be entirely network-centric.

  4. "Might" be translated as network? by Yvan256 · · Score: 5, Informative

    He called the whole thing a "réseau," which might be translated as "network"
    What do you mean by "might" be translated as network?

    Réseau is the french word for network!

  5. Re:What a visionary! by oliderid · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well I remember watching a documentary over the mondaneum (I'm belgian). Pre WWII he enjoyed a relatively popularity in Belgium and amongst the intelligentsia around the world. Besides the mondaneum I remember that he tried to create somekind of a 'universal city' where human knowledge would have been concentrated and archived.

    He did try to settle it somewhere near Antwerp (If I remember well) but nobody truly wanted it. I think he tried to settle it somewhere in Switzerland but it didn't work either (or maybe just part of his project, I really don't know anymore).

    During the occupation, Nazi (and/or collaborators) were truly concerned about his pacifism, the mondaneum was located in the cinqantenaire (a famous building in brussels). I think (but it should be checked) that they did whatever they can to force him to leave. His real tragedy was when thugs came in and took all his archives, with no regards for their complex classification, loosing parts of it...Everything became unclassified and thus almost lost entirely too.

    Then the remaining mundaneum archived have been moved to Mons. He did his best to revive his project and it never worked like before WWII.
    Sad story.

  6. It's all hypothetical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    French is a fictional language, much like Klingon or Tolkien's Elvish languages. No one speaks it natively, so what words might mean is of little practical value.