The WorldWideWeb project merges the techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to create a powerful, global information system. It is built on the philosophy that academic information should be freely available to anyone, anywhere.
The Reader's Perspective
In the WWW multiverse, the world consists of documents and links. To the reader, all information—whether it is a real file, a search result (virtual document), or an index—looks and behaves the same way.
- Navigation: To follow a link, a reader simply clicks a mouse (or types a number).
- Discovery: To search an index, a reader provides keywords. These are the only two operations necessary to access the entire world of data.
The Information Provider's Perspective
Providing information to the web is as simple as creating a few SGML files that point to existing data. By using the HTTP protocol and a gateway, even large existing databases can be made available without changing their internal management systems.
"The WWW model overcomes frustrating incompatibilities of data formats by allowing negotiation between a smart browser and a smart server."
Deployment and Testing
For research and testing, several tools are available to students and developers:
- Line Mode Browser
- The least sophisticated but most universal browser, accessible via telnet to
info.cern.ch. - Hypertext Editor
- A sophisticated WYSIWYG editor for the NeXT workstation that allows for simultaneous reading and writing of web content.
- Server Daemon
- The background process (daemon) that handles HTTP requests and serves files to the network.