Pois é, tá completando 1 década a simples idéia de Tim Berners-Lee. A maior prova de que a Internet deve permanecer 100% livre de patentes e afins. Quem ousar questionar que pare um pouco prá pensar no porrilhão de inovações que vieram depois do WWW. Elas seriam possíveis se (des)governadas por uma filosofia doentia de "posse"?

Legal é ver que Tim não precisou pagar licença, royalties ou afins mas se "apoderou" d'uma idéia bem mais velha. E dá o crédito merecido para Vannevar Bush, que em 1945 publicou "As We May Think". Saca só um trechinho:

"The owner of the memex let us say, is interested in the origin and properties of the bow and arrow. Specifically he is studying why the short Turkish bow was apparently superior to the English long bow in the skirmishes of the Crusades. He has dozens of possibly pertinent books and articles in his memex. First he runs through an encyclopedia, finds an interesting but sketchy article, leaves it projected. Next, in a history, he finds another pertinent item, and ties the two together. Thus he goes, building a trail of many items. Occasionally he inserts a comment of his own, either linking it into the main trail or joining it by a side trail to a particular item. When it becomes evident that the elastic properties of available materials had a great deal to do with the bow, he branches off on a side trail which takes him through textbooks on elasticity and physical constants. He inserts a page of longhand analysis of his own. Thus he builds a trail of his interest through the maze of materials available to him."

Pois é... o cara tava ali pavimentando o caminho prá invenção do "hiperlink".
Memex= Memory Extension. Prá conhecer um pouco mais sobre esse Bush legal, clique aqui. E aqui prá conhecer o Tim.