"For all their foresight about the possibilities of information networks, none of the hypertext pioneers truly saw the social media revolution coming." #readingToday

For all their foresight about the possibilities of information networks, none of the hypertext pioneers truly saw the social media revolution coming. Otlet spoke of allowing individual users to "sing in the chorus," an early if cautious form of collective filtering. But he certainly never envisioned them writing the music as well. Similarly, neither Bush nor Nelson envisioned networked environments designed primarily for individual consumption, rather than group interaction. And while Engelbart thought deeply about creating tools to help groups work together, he had in mind small teams in the workplace rather than an environment to support casual social interactions on a global scale.

Cataloging the World, Alex Wright