There are a lot of myths, and myth building. The world already had RPC (control software, in which TBL participated), even hypertext with links. What he got, wa

There are a lot of myths, and myth building. The world already had RPC (control software, in which TBL participated), even hypertext with links. What he got, was a (very expensive) toy capable of graphics, while everybody else had falcos to gaze text (still a mystery how that found its way through CERN management). NextStep had an unused memory slot while handling font properties, so that's where the link got hacked in, almost à la hypercard, dead-simple "programming". It was arguably not very multiplatform. The web as we know it today owes its success to being an open, multiplatform graphical standard. There were all sorts of similar standards, even graphical, but maybe less open and therefore less multiplatform. Students created with sweat the multiplatform stuff that was then openly given away and improved upon around the "rest" of the world. It was the work of many, built on the ideas of many. It was very much of an organic development, not somebody waking up in the morning changing the world. But then it wouldn't make such a nice success story, which is essential to branding, for PR. btw: I am almost convinced, that Robert C. was aware of the beautiful, but forgotten story about a Belgian from '30s, who was swept away in WWII. He really had the ideas nailed about what the internet is today, for which others (in the U.S.A.) took the credit for after WWII (ARPA, V.Bush, memex, IEEE etc.). Actually, the Universal Decimal Classification found in almost every library, or documentation system. Short story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwRN5m64I7Y http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwRN5m64I7Y Long story: http://www.archive.org/details/paulotlet http://www.archive.org/details/paulotlet