Week 1 Tutorial Workshop Answers

WEEK ONE: Tutorial Workshop Answers

REFERENCE:

• Bush, V. (1945), As We May Think. The Atlantic July 1945
• Berners-Lee, T. (2000), Weaving the Web: the original design and ultimate destiny of the World Wide Web by its inventor. New York: Harper Collins Publishers

What are the central problems are both both Bush and Berners-Lee trying to solve?

• A way to more efficiently organise, store and access information (particularly research information)
• Faster, easier ways to record aspects of the human experience (eg. sight, sound etc.) and therefore making day-to-day life easier in the process
• A more efficient way to create records of not just the finished product, but the processes and steps that led to its completion

• An universal way for people to share their own data and access other people's data across different systems without requiring the format of the data to be altered or for them to be subject to a cumbersome set of rules

What type of indexing does Bush propose? How is it different to other methods existing at the time (and even now)? What model is it based on?

Bush proposes a system of indexing which utilises 'selection by association', rather than indexing in the traditional linear ways such as alphabetically or numerically. It's based on the associative way the human brain functions, in that the links created between concepts can transcend the boundaries such as classes or topics, created by traditional indexing methods, and does not need to return to a common 'starting point'.


What are some of the key principles and values built into the infrastructure of the internet?
Openness and a free access of information. A decentralised system without an ultimate authority of a 'central links database' (Berners-Lee 16). Anyone has the authority and ability to create links that can reference each other. Anyone can add new nodes (connection points) connected by a new link.

Creating a 'common base for communication' (Berners-Lee 20), which allowed people to communicate on a platform without sacrificing the individuality of their own systems.


Some people have criticised people who too closely link the memex with the web. What are some of the key differences between the memex and the web?

• The memex is a physical device and the processes in which it stores information is still physical
• Information to be stored in the memex is 'purchased on microfilm ready for insertion' and content is physically stored (however compressed) on memex film. Digital data can exist independent of a fixed object (?)
• The process of tracing the history of associations through the memex is more complex and personalised. The user can permanently link two items together while viewing content and add his own notes to the 'trail' of associations, whereas an individual using the web would have to do this through several applications