Simian Design

November 17, 2003

The Universal Book

Paul Otlet is the forgotten forefather of information architecture. (or, in my case, never-known forefather). In 1934, Paul Otlet envisioned a new type of machine that would access millions of index cards and form relationships, or links as he called them. He envisioned a Universal Decimal Classification System. He helped establish an installation that was to be a new city of the intellect, a hub of a utopian city.

This new research environment would do more than just let users retrieve documents; it would also let them annotate the relationships between one another, “the connections each [document] has with all other [documents], forming from them what might be called the Universal Book.”

It's a real interesting read on the history of what we do. We all know about Vannevar Bush, and Ted Nelson, and others, but not Paul Otlet.

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Posted at 11:24 AM