Subject: Time:2:30 AM
OFFICE MEMO Web Watch Column 23 Date:4/17/95
Here is a column Tom Munnecke wrote about the Darmstadt conference. Feel free to distribute for non-commercial purposes.
Darmstadt, Germany.
An "ecology of information" is how we need to view the Internet, according to Apple fellow Alan Kay. In his keynote address here at the Third International World Wide Web Conference, he said that the old "clockwork" model of systems thinking was obsolete. The complexity of systems today is so great that we can no longer manufacture them. Rather, we need to grow them organically.
The highlight of the conference was the introduction of the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). The audience of 1400 people was strangely quiet as they tried to assimilate this huge technological leap. Then one person stood up and said, "This is day zero of a whole new era."
This technology was first discussed at an informal "birds of a feather" session at the First International World Wide Web Conference in May 1994. This group decided that the two dimensional web display should be upgraded to three dimensions. Eleven months later, they realized their dream. Within months, the capability will be available on freely over the web. I have been on computer standards committees which spent years changing a comma. It was stunning to see this technology emerge so quickly..
VRML allows the viewer to manipulate objects, fly over landscapes, and interact with a virtual environment. An object in the virtual world could be attached to any other page in the web, for example linking a three dimensional chemistry molecule with a page describing the interaction of the molecules.
The National Library of Medicine's Visual Human project could be placed on the web, allowing people to look at a three dimensional model of the body. There could be different layers for the skeleton, organs, or circulatory system. The model could be linked to all types of medical knowledge bases, which could be accessed with the click of a button.
A patient's medical record could be linked to the virtual patient, allowing clinicians to see information at a glance, rather than rummaging through a paper record.
Clinicians could click on a "tricorder" icon, then drag it over the part of the patient of interest. The computer could scan for all relevant information about the patient, and then link it with databases anywhere on the web. The latest information from the Centers for Disease Control could be scanned.
People wanting to purchase tickets at a theater or stadium could see the view from their seats in three dimensions. Viewers could visit cities: there is a project to build a virtual San Francisco on the web by the end of 1995.
Information for financial, scientific, or educational purposes could be visualized on the web. Product catalogs, design data bases, and journals could contain three dimensional displays.
The web is a foundation for an unprecedented universal new medium of communication. Alan Kay said that it is the author, not the technologist, which innovates in the new medium. For example, it took 65 years after the invention of the printing press for an author to think of numbering the pages in a book, so that he could cross reference the pages.
Public access to the web will increase dramatically. Microsoft demonstrated their Internet Explorer product, which will be integrated into their forthcoming Windows 95 desktop. Users will be able to access web pages very simply, and drag or drop them onto the desktop, documents, or folders. Thomas Reardon, networking technical lead for Windows 95, said, "The web will be a basic part of using a computer in 1996."
The conference attracted a number of large scale enterprises who were adopting the web for their internal information systems. Siemens/Nixdorf, Ericcson, Rover, Boeing, Sun, Silicon Graphics, and SAIC all spoke of their internal networks of corporate information using web technology.
Many large publishers were well represented. Some wags have called the web "the largest library in the world without a card catalog." The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), containing over 25 million "card catalog" citations was active in demonstrating their online system, and participated in developing standards for "metadata" allowing simpler access to information and knowledge. I would not be surprised if Playboy is one of the first publishers of virtual reality on the web.
A new language called Java was introduced. Java safely allows programs, not just data to be exchanged. These small applications, or "applets" allow a new generation of client/server sophistication. One simply clicks on something of interest. The network would install any necessary software automatically, as well as the billing chores.
Over a late night session in a smoke-filled bierstube, I spoke with some of the web architects about using Java to manage the web itself. This would allow the web to modify itself and adapt rapidly to changing conditions. The web would then truly become an organism in the ecology of information.