Alex Wright


The Web That Time Forgot

June 16, 2008

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to visit Mons, Belgium, home of the Mundaneum, a museum dedicated to Paul Otlet, the great Belgian information scientist who envisioned something very much like the World Wide Web in the 1930s. I've been interested in Otlet for several years (I also wrote about him in my book), so I was eager to see some of his work up close.

I pitched an article about Otlet to the Science editors at the Times, who liked the idea enough to let me give it a shot. Today, my piece on Otlet is running as the Science Times cover story (and in the International Herald Tribune, for any of you European types out there). Today also happens to be the tenth anniversary of the new Mundaneum museum.

I was also happy to contribute a couple of photos to the story, but of course I took a lot more that didn't make the cut. Here are a few more snapshots from my trip to Mons:

Outside the Mundaneum
Outside the Mundaneum

Mundaneum catalog
The original "paper Internet"

Mundaneum catalog card
Sample card entry

Stéphanie Manfroid
Stéphanie Manfroid, lead archivist at the Mundaneum museum

Boyd Rayward
Boyd Rayward, who "discovered" Otlet's work and re-introduced him to the Anglo-American world in 1968

Recreation of Paul Otlet's desk
A recreation of Otlet's desk

Recreation of Paul Otlet's office
Recreation of Otlet's office

Inside the Mundaneum
Inside the Mundaneum

Transparency from the Mundaneum collection
Transparency from the Mundaneum collection

Inside the Mundaneum archive
Inside the Mundaneum archive

Perusing a folder from the Mundaneum collection
Perusing a folder from the Mundaneum collection

Conceptual model by Paul Otlet
Conceptual model by Paul Otlet

Visual index by Paul Otlet
Visual index by Paul Otlet

Thanks to Stéphanie Manfroid and Boyd Rayward, who spent time with me in Mons and helped steer my research for the article. Thanks also to Françoise Levie, Michael Buckland, and Kevin Kelly, who all provided valuable input along the way.


File under: Publications

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