The memex...affords an immediate step, however, to associative indexing, the basic idea of which is a provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another. This is the essential feature of the memex. The process of tying two items together is the important thing.

Vannevar Bush
As We May Think
(Atlantic Monthly, 1945)

In 1945, President Roosevelt's key scientific advisor, Vannevar Bush (on the left), wrote an article for the Atlantic Monthly titled, "As We May Think." In the article, Bush envisioned a massive system of information called the Memex, all interconnected, and all accessible by a user-chosen path. The idea for a hyperinformation system was born!

The problem? Computing technology was just beginning, and Bush didn't really envision how his system would be implemented, beyond some electro-mechanical contraption using microfilm.

Then, in 1989, with computers an everyday device and the Internet becoming an important communication highway, Tim Berners-Lee (on the right) created the World Wide Web by developing the HTTP protocol and the HTML markup language.

The adoption of the web into every day lives was quicker than any other major technology in the twentieth century, including automobiles, radio, television, and computers. The power of the web comes from two characteristics:

• The information can be stored centrally and obtained by users as needed, with the latest and greatest version always available. Other electronic media, such as CDs or software help files, are a snapshot of information at a given time, without easy updating.
• The information can be navigated by the user in a path of his or her own choosing. This second characteristic is created with hyperlinks.

Suppose all the information stored on computers everywhere were linked, I thought. I could program my computer to create a space in which anything could be linked to anything...There would be a single, global information space.

Tim Berners-Lee
Weaving the Web
(HarperCollins Books, 1999)