Redescobrindo Paul Otlet
Parece que novos pesquisadores estão redescobrindo o belga Paul Otlet como um dos pensadores que contribuiu de maneira mais relevante com o conceito de compartilhamento de documentos em rede. Em reportagem publicada hoje no New York Times, o jornalista Alex Wright traz uma nova reflexão sobre o autor, confira alguns trechos:
“In 1934, Otlet sketched out plans for a global network of computers (or “electric 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 social networks. He called the whole thing a “réseau,” which might be translated as “network” — or arguably, ‘web.’”
“Although Otlet’s proto-Web relied on a patchwork of analog technologies like index cards and telegraph machines, it nonetheless anticipated the hyperlinked structure of today’s Web. ”
“Otlet’s version of hypertext held a few important advantages over today’s Web. For one thing, he saw a smarter kind of hyperlink. Whereas links on the Web today serve as a kind of mute bond between documents, Otlet envisioned links that carried meaning by, for example, annotating if particular documents agreed or disagreed with each other. That facility is notably lacking in the dumb logic of modern hyperlinks.”
Confira também este link: “International organisation and dissemination of knowledge : selected essays of Paul Otlet“
