WorldWideWeb
- Executive Summary
The
WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval
and hypertext tomake an easy but powerful global information
system.
The
project started with the philosophy that much academic information
should be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information
sharing within internationally dispersed teams, and the
dissemination of information by support groups.
Reader
view
The
WWW world consists of documents, and links. Indexes
are special documents which, rather than being read, may be
searched. The result of such a search is another ("virtual")
document containing links to the documents found. A
simple protocol ("HTTP") is used to allow a browser program
to request a keyword search by a remote information server.
The
web contains documents in many formats. Those documents which
are hypertext, (real or virtual) contain links to other
documents, or places within documents. All documents, whether
real, virtual or indexes, look similar to the reader
and are contained within the same addressing scheme.
To
follow a link, a reader clicks with a mouse (or types
in a number if he or she has no mouse). To search and index,
a reader gives keywords (or other search criteria). These
are the only operations necessary to access the entire
world of data.
Information
provider view
The
WWW browsers can access many existing data systems via existing
protocols (FTP, NNTP) or via HTTP and
a gateway. In this way, the critical mass of data is
quickly exceeded, and the increasing use of the system by
readers and information suppliers encourage
each other. Making
a web is as simple as writing a few SGML files which point
to your existing data. Making it public involves running the
FTP or HTTP daemon, and making at least one link into your
web from another. In fact, any file available by anonymous
FTP can be immediately linked into a web. The very small start-up
effort is designed to allow small contributions. At
the other end of the scale, large information providers may
provide an HTTP server with full text or keyword indexing.
The
WWW model gets over the frustrating incompatibilities of data
format between suppliers and reader by allowing negotiation
of format between a smart browser and a smart server. This
should provide a basis for extension into multimedia, and
allow those who share application standards to make full use
of them across the web. This
summary does not describe the many exciting possibilities
opened up by the WWW project, such as efficient document caching.
the reduction of redundant out-of-date copies, and the use
of knowledge daemons. There is more information in the
online project documentation, including some background on
hypertext and many technical notes.
Try
it
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