Organizations and Markets

Mundaneum: The Google of 1910

29 March 2010 at 8:22 am Peter G. Klein Leave a comment

| Peter Klein |

Fascinating article by Molly Springfield in Triple Canopy on the Mundaneum, an effort by two Belgian lawyers to collect and classify all the world’s information, using notecards and an innovative filing system. Information scientist Paul Otlet “was the first to imagine all the world’s knowledge as one vast ‘web,’ connected by ‘links’ and accessed remotely through desktop screens, and because of this he can be seen as the kooky grandfather of the Internet.” Unfortunately, the analog technology of the early twentieth century was not up to the task. (Here’s the wiki on the Mundaneum, which incidentally might make a good title for my next book.)

See also: The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage.

Entry filed under: - Klein -, Business/Economic History, Innovation, Nothing New under the Sun, People.