4th Anniversary

[Roy Tennant]

Tomorrow is the 4th anniversary of Web4Lib. The discussion began on May
12, 1994, which seems like a century ago. Since that time, well over
15,000 messages have been posted, and although it may feel that way, most
of them were *not* on filtering! We are presently at about 3,600
subscribers representing over 50 different countries. Below is an informal
look back at the beginning of it all. Those who want a more formal history
of the list can refer to the Ariadne article I wrote a while back at
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk./ariadne/issue5/web4lib/ .

Among the earliest posters can be found: Bill Drew, Art Rhyno, Thomas
Dowling, Nick Arnett, Charles Bailey, Jr., Elizabeth Cherhal, Lee Jaffe,
Jon Knight, Stu Weibel, Don Napoli, Tony Barry, Brian Kelly, Jim Gerland,
Pat Cline, Bob Strauss, John Ober (who participated in beginning the
list), Jim Milles, Traugott Koch, Stephen Sloan, Peter Gorman, and Gleason
Sackman. Nearly all of these people have made, and continue to make,
significant contributions to Web systems in libraries and many other
areas, not surprisingly.

Among the earliest messages I was embarrased to find the following:
------------------------------------------------------------
>Date: Wed, 18 May 94 10:06:50 PDT
>From: rtennant at library.berkeley.edu (Roy Tennant)
>Subject: Re: Minimum standards for library html documents
>
>I took the liberty of taking Bill Drew's recommendations for HTML
>markup and edited them, including some of the comments from other
>discussion participants. I think Bill has brought up an excellent
>point, in that we should strive for some basic standards in HTML
>markup that recognize the diverse environment in which we find
>ourselves and the various means by which our users will be accessing
>our information systems. To that end, I suggest an ongoing process
>of developing guidelines that can be used to enhance access to
>webbed information. Below is what might be considered the "first
>draft" of such a document, thanks to Bill Drew and others:
>
>GUIDELINES FOR HTML MARKUP
>
>Note: The following guidelines are designed to: 1) enhance access to
>information in the World-Wide Web by individuals using diverse browsing
>methods, and 2) provide basic operational standards upon which web
>users can increasingly depend. It is recognized that it may not be
>possible, in any given situation, to implement all of the these
>guidelines, but Web managers are encouraged to support those that they
>can.
>
>* Supply a <MAILTO> URL so that comments can be sent back to the owner
>from browsers that support this feature.
>
>* When using images in a document, use the form <IMG SRC="xxx"
>ALT="yyy">, wherein "yyy" is text that will display in leiu of the image
>for those browsers without image support.
>
>* When using the ISMAP feature (imbedding URLs inside map files),
>provide a second document that lists the URLs outside of the map graphic.
>
>* Provide access to WAIS via forms or gopher URLs because not all
>computer platforms or clients currently provide support for WAIS.
>
>* Provide a <TITLE> that does not rely on the user having accessed
>documents from which the document is linked to provide contextual
>information for interpreting the <TITLE>
>
>Roy Tennant
--------------------------------------------------------------

The embarrasing thing is that I'm not sure what happened to these draft
guidelines, after they were posted.

There was an early flood of activity on the list, although the volume in
comparison to today is not all that impressive -- an average of ten
messages a day for the first several weeks, which compares to about 15-20
messages a day now. And even as things change, they still remain the same
(Thomas, does the following sound the least bit familiar, after all these
years?):

---------------------------------------------------
>Date: Tue, 24 May 94 15:33:52 -0700
>From: tdowling at lib.washington.edu
>
>As people start leaving the list, please remember to send your unsuscribe
>commands to the listserv address, not the list itself.
>
>Thomas Dowling
>University of Washington Engineering Library
>tdowling at u.washington.edu
------------------------------------------------------

Another very early posting by Thomas presaged a service that has withstood
the test of time:

------------------------------------------------------
>Date: Thu, 26 May 94 16:13:34 -0700
>From: tdowling at lib.washington.edu
>
>Rushing in where angels fear to tread, I have recklessly volunteered to
>keep a list of Library-oriented Web servers.  I hope I'm not biting off
>more than I can chew, but what I have so far is at:
>
>http://www.lib.washington.edu/~tdowling/libweb.html
>
>Thomas Dowling
>University of Washington Engineering Library
>tdowling at u.washington.edu
------------------------------------------------------

Don't go there now, it long since moved to
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/ . Thanks for putting up with my
reminiscences, and also for helping make Web4Lib what it is today.
Roy Tennant
Web4Lib Owner