Nature of web; Who invented the web

[Joe Schallan]

Good morning web librarians,

During our lively discussion of the issue of "porn in the
library" and filtering, one thing became abundantly
clear to me:  We librarians have not reached consensus
on just what the web is and what we should do about it.

Some see it as analogous to a book jobber's catalog,
from which individual items (web sites) may be chosen.
In this context, filtering may be viewed as selection.

Others see it as a single, multifaceted resource,
fantastic in its breadth and breathtaking in its chaos,
that offers patrons unprecedented access to information
and intellectual exploration.  In this context, filtering is
odious.

Yet others see it as a something more like broadcast
television -- a common carrier of  information.  Libraries
have very little experience with the common carrier model.
Common carriers, such as telcos, have traditionally
been held to be *not* liable for damages arising
from the way their customers use the medium they
provide.

Can, and should, the common carrier model be applied
in the library setting?  If we view the web as a big pipe
coming into the building, carrying anything and
everything, do we just open the valve and let it flow
into the trough, letting the public pick and choose
the morsels they want?  (Yeah, yeah, sorry about the
barnyard metaphor, but I just couldn't resist . . . )

Are libraries common carriers, like telcos?

The discussion clearly showed that although certain
individuals are certain they have the "right" model,
the profession as a whole has not yet figured out just
what the web is and how it should be handled.   It is
clearly a entirely new animal encountered in the terra
incognita of new technology.  As to which genus it should
be assigned, we do not yet know.

Just as new information technology has challenged and
stretched old notions of copyright, so also the web is
challenging and stretching old notions of what constitutes
a "work," "authorship," and "authority,"  and what
selection in a library context means.

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Who invented the web?

I'm aware that Theodore Nelson is widely credited with being
the "inventor" of hypertext.  Something very much like the web is
pretty well fleshed out in his Xanadu Project proposal, discussed
in his early-70s book, "Computer Lib / Dream Machines."

And I've always heard CERN credited with the invention of
the hypertext-transport protocol and the adoption of SGML-
based tagging.

Not being a student of the history of the web (until now),
I'm just curious as to whether the above is correct.  Given
the way in which technical ideas develop, I'm certain it
can't be, or at least that it has to be more complicated.

Surely someone before Ted Nelson had the idea of
dynamically linking documents in a real-time context.
Was there a Vannevar Bush of hypertext?   Likewise,
certainly someone besides CERN was working on the
idea of hypertext delivered via the Arpanet.  This idea
must have been knocking around for years.

Thanks,

Joe

============================
Joe Schallan, MLS
Reference Librarian/Web Page Editor
Glendale (Arizona) Public Library
jschall at glenpub.lib.az.us
============================