Back in 1989 a proposal was written about organising information within CERN for the "LHC era". (http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html http://www.w3.org/

Back in 1989 a proposal was written about organising information within CERN for the "LHC era". (http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html) There's some irony that twenty years later you're able to use the very technology spawned by that proposal to write a comment asking whether all the expense and effort of the LHC and CERN will have any practical technological gains.