The Web Time Forgot

From NYT > Technology:

MONS, Belgium - On a fog drizzled Monday afternoon, this fading medieval city feels like a forgotten place. Apart from the obligatory Gothic cathedral, there is not much else to see here except for a tiny storefront museum called the Munaneum, tucked down a narrow street in the northeast cornerof town. It feels like a fittingly secluded home for the legacy of one of technology's lost pioneers: Paul Otlet.

In 1934, Otlet sketched out plans for a global network of computers (or "electronic 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 socail networks. He called the whole thing a "réseau" which might be translated as "network" - or arguably, "web."

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