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tangles, links, and webs

In March 1989 I took the leap to write a proposal. I wanted to explain that generality was the essence of a web of information. On the other hand, I felt I had to make the system seem to be something that could happen only at CERN. I was excited about escaping from the straitjacket of hierarchical documentation systems, but I didn't want the people responsible for any hierarchical system to throw rocks at me. I had to show how this system could integrate very disparate things, so I provided an example of an Internet newsgroup message, and a page from my old Enquire program.

I was brash enough to look forward to having a web of data that could be processed by machine. I said:

An intriguing possibility, given a large hypertext database with typed links, is that it allows some degree of automatic analysis. [. . .] Imagine making a large three-dimensional model, with people represented by little spheres, and strings between people who have something in common at work.

Now imagine picking up the structure and shaking it, until you make some sense of the tangle: Perhaps you see tightly knit groups in some places, and in some places weak areas of communication spanned by only a few people. Perhaps a linked information system will allow us to see the real structure of the organization in which we work.

Little did I know that Ph.D. theses would later be done on such topics.

For all the decisions about which technical points to include in the proposal or exclude, and which social advantages of the system to emphasize, I was rather light on the project management details:

I imagine that two people for six to twelve months would be sufficient for this phase of the project. A second phase would