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In article <6...@cernvax.cern.ch> I promised to post a short summary  of the   
WorldWideWeb project.  Mail me with any queries. 
                WorldWideWeb - Executive Summary 
The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to   
make an easy but powerful global information system. 
The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should   
be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information sharing within   
internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of information by   
support groups. 
     Reader view 
The WWW world consists of documents, and links.  Indexes are special documents   
which, rather than being read, may be searched. The result of such a search is   
another ("virtual") document containing links to the documents found.  A simple   
protocol ("HTTP") is used to allow a browser program to request a keyword   
search by a remote information server. 
The web contains documents in many formats. Those documents which are   
hypertext,  (real or virtual) contain links to other documents, or places   
within documents. All documents, whether real, virtual or indexes, look similar   
to the reader and are contained within the same addressing scheme. 
To follow a link,  a reader clicks with a mouse (or types in a number if he or   
she has no mouse). To search and index, a reader gives keywords (or other   
search criteria). These are the only operations  necessary to access the entire   
world of data. 
     Information provider view 
The WWW browsers can access many existing data systems via existing protocols   
(FTP, NNTP) or via HTTP and a gateway. In this way, the critical mass of data   
is quickly exceeded, and the increasing use of the system by readers and   
information suppliers encourage each other. 
Making a web is as simple as writing a few SGML files which point to your   
existing data. Making it public involves running the FTP or HTTP daemon, and   
making at least one link into your web from another. In fact,  any file   
available by anonymous FTP can be immediately linked into a web. The very small   
start-up effort is designed to allow small contributions.  At the other end of   
the scale, large information providers may provide an HTTP server with full   
text or keyword indexing. 
The WWW model gets over the frustrating incompatibilities of data format   
between suppliers and reader by allowing negotiation of format between a smart   
browser and a smart server. This should provide a basis for extension into   
multimedia, and allow those who share application standards to make full use of   
them across the web. 
This summary does not describe the many exciting possibilities opened up by the   
WWW project, such as efficient document caching. the reduction of redundant   
out-of-date copies, and the use of knowledge daemons.  There is more   
information in the online project documentation, including some background on   
hypertext and many technical notes. 
     Try it 
A prototype (very alpha test) simple line mode browser is currently available   
in source form from node  info.cern.ch [currently 128.141.201.74] as 
        /pub/WWW/WWWLineMode_0.9.tar.Z. 
Also available is a hypertext editor for the NeXT using the NeXTStep graphical   
user interface, and a skeleton server daemon. 
Documentation is readable using www (Plain text of the instalation instructions   
is included in the tar file!). Document 
         http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html 
is as good a place to start as any. Note these coordinates may change with   
later releases. 
_________________________________________________________________ 
Tim Berners-Lee                 Tel:    +41(22)767 3755 
WorldWideWeb project            Fax:    +41(22)767 7155 
C.E.R.N.                        email:  t...@cernvax.cern.ch 
1211 Geneva 23 
Switzerland