Ian Ritchie: The day I turned down Tim Berners-Lee

翻译人员: Fan Xu 校对人员: Felix Chen

Well we all know the World Wide Web

我们都知道万维网

has absolutely transformed publishing, broadcasting,

已经绝对地改变了出版、广播、

commerce and social connectivity,

商业和社交的联通性，

but where did it all come from?

但是它是从哪儿来的？

And I'll quote three people:

在此我要引用三个人：

Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart and Tim Berners-Lee.

范尼瓦尔•布什，道格•英格尔巴特和蒂姆•伯纳斯李。

So let's just run through these guys.

那么我们一个一个地说说这些人。

This is Vannevar Bush.

这是范尼瓦尔•布什，

Vannevar Bush was the U.S. government's chief scientific adviser during the war.

范尼瓦尔•布什曾经是美国政府在战争时期的首席科学顾问。

And in 1945,

在1945年的时候，

he published an article in a magazine called Atlantic Monthly.

他在一本名为”大西洋月刊“的杂志上公开发表了一篇文章。

And the article was called "As We May Think."

这个文章就叫做”像你可以想的那样“。

And what Vannevar Bush was saying

范尼瓦尔•布什想表达的

was the way we use information is broken.

是我们使用信息的方式是破碎的。

We don't work in terms of libraries

我们没有根据图书馆

and catalog systems and so forth.

和目录系统等等那样做。

The brain works by association.

大脑是通过联合协作来工作的。

With one item in its thought, it snaps instantly to the next item.

当它在想一个主体的时候，它就立即会去连接下一个主体。

And the way information is structured

并且，信息构造的方式

is totally incapable of keeping up with this process.

是完全无法把我们限制在这个过程中的。

And so he suggested a machine,

所以，他提议了一种机器，

and he called it the memex.

他把它叫做麦麦克斯。

And the memex would link information,

麦麦克斯可以连接信息，

one piece of information to a related piece of information and so forth.

一条信息连到一条与之有关的信息，并以此延续。

Now this was in 1945.

现在这是1945年。

A computer in those days

一台电脑在那个时候

was something the secret services used to use for code breaking.

是机密服务部门用来破解密码的东西。

And nobody knew anything about it.

并且没有人知道关于它的任何事。

So this was before the computer was invented.

所以这是电脑被发明之前。

And he proposed this machine called the memex.

他提议把这个机器命名为麦麦克斯。

And he had a platform where you linked information to other information,

并且他有一个可以让你把信息与其他信息连接起来的平台，

and then you could call it up at will.

然后你就可以随意调用它。

So spinning forward,

所以向前旋转一点，

one of the guys who read this article was a guy called Doug Engelbart,

在这些读过这篇文章的人中，有一个人叫道格•英格尔巴特，

and he was a U.S. Air Force officer.

他曾是美国空军的军官。

And he was reading it in their library in the Far East.

他当时正在他们在远东的图书馆里阅读这篇文章。

And he was so inspired by this article,

并且这篇文章曾让他很受鼓舞，

it kind of directed the rest of his life.

一定程度上指示了他的余生。

And by the mid-60s, he was able to put this into action

在60年代中期的时候，他得以把想法付诸于实践，

when he worked at the Stanford Research Lab in California.

当他在加州斯坦福研究实验室工作的时候。

He built a system.

他建立了一种系统。

The system was designed to augment human intelligence, it was called.

这种系统是设计来增强人类智力的，据说。

And in a premonition of today's world

在对今日世界上

of cloud computing and softwares of service,

云计算和服务软件的预感里，

his system was called NLS

他的系统被称作

for oN-Line System.

为oN-Line系统设计的NLS。

And this is Doug Engelbart.

这是道格•英格尔巴特。

He was giving a presentation at the Fall Joint Computer Conference

他当时正在秋季联合电脑会议上做一个演讲，

in 1968.

那是1968年。

What he showed --

他展示的是——

he sat on a stage like this, and he demonstrated this system.

他坐在一个像这样的舞台上，演示这个系统。

He had his head mic like I've got.

他有他的头戴式话筒，就像我得到的这个。

And he works this system.

他操作了这个系统。

And you can see, he's working between documents

如你所见，他当时正在文件

and graphics and so forth.

和图解计算等等之间操作。

And he's driving it all

他完全掌控它

with this platform here,

用这里的这个平台，

with a five-finger keyboard

一个五指的键盘，

and the world's first computer mouse,

和这个世界上第一个电脑鼠标，

which he specially designed in order to do this system.

这个他特别为了这个系统设计的鼠标。

So this is where the mouse came from as well.

所以这也是鼠标的来源。

So this is Doug Engelbart.

这是道格•英格尔巴特。

The trouble with Doug Engelbart's system

道格•英格尔巴特的系统的问题在于

was that the computers in those days cost several million pounds.

那个时代的电脑都有几百万磅重。

So for a personal computer,

所以对一个个人电脑来说，

a few million pounds was like having a personal jet plane;

几百万磅就像是拥有一架私人飞机；

it wasn't really very practical.

它不是非常实际。

But spin on to the 80s

但是转到80年代，

when personal computers did arrive,

当个人电脑确实到来的时候，

then there was room for this kind of system on personal computers.

这种在个人电脑上的系统就有了空间。

And my company, OWL

我的公司，OWL

built a system called Guide for the Apple Macintosh.

建立了一种名为”苹果麦金塔电脑指南“的系统。

And we delivered the world's first hypertext system.

并且我们发表了世界上第一个超文本系统。

And this began to get a head of steam.

这个为潮流开了个头。

Apple introduced a thing called HyperCard,

苹果介绍了一种叫”超卡“的东西，

and they made a bit of a fuss about it.

并且他们对此有点小题大做。

They had a 12-page supplement in the Wall Street Journal the day it launched.

在它发布的当天，他们做了12页的华尔街日报增刊。

The magazines started to cover it.

杂志们开始涉及它。

Byte magazine and Communications at the ACM

字节杂志和在ACM的通讯杂志

had special issues covering hypertext.

有涉及超文本的特殊期刊。

We developed a PC version of this product

我们开发了这种产品的个人电脑版本

as well as the Macintosh version.

和麦金塔版本。

And our PC version became quite mature.

并且，我们的个人电脑版本变得十分成熟。

These are some examples of this system in action in the late 80s.

80年代后期，有一些这个系统工作的例子。

You were able to deliver documents, were able to do it over networks.

你可以传输文件，可以通过网络来做。

We developed a system such

我们开发了这样一个系统，

that it had a markup language based on html.

它拥有一个基于html的标记语言。

We called it hml: hypertext markup language.

我们称之为hml：超文本设置语言。

And the system was capable of doing

这个系统能够通过计算机网络，

very, very large documentation systems over computer networks.

做非常，非常大的文件系统。

So I took this system to a trade show in Versailles near Paris

所以我带着这个系统去了一个在巴黎附近凡尔赛的贸易展览，

in late November 1990.

在1990年11月下旬。

And I was approached by a nice young man called Tim Berners-Lee

我接触了一位友好的叫蒂姆•伯纳斯李的年轻人，

who said, "Are you Ian Ritchie?" and I said, "Yeah."

那个说“你是伊恩•瑞彻吗？“ 的人，我说“是。”

And he said, "I need to talk to you."

他说，”我需要和你聊一聊。“

And he told me about his proposed system called the World Wide Web.

于是他告诉了我关于他提议的万维网系统。

And I thought, well, that's got a pretentious name,

然后我就想，好吧，那是一个自命不凡的名字，

especially since the whole system ran on his computer in his office.

特别是整个系统不过只是在他办公室里的电脑上运行。

But he was completely convinced that his World Wide Web

但是他完全确信他的万维网

would take over the world one day.

总有一天会占领这个世界。

And he tried to persuade me to write the browser for it,

并且他试图说服我去为它写一个浏览器，

because his system didn't have any graphics or fonts or layout or anything;

因为他的系统没有任何图解或者字体或者布局或者其他事情；

it was just plain text.

它只是简单的文本。

I thought, well, you know, interesting,

我觉得，好吧，你知道的，挺有趣，

but a guy from CERN, he's not going to do this.

但是一个从CERN来的人，他不会做的。

So we didn't do it.

所以我们没有做。

In the next couple of years,

在之后的几年中，

the hypertext community didn't recognize him either.

超文本团体也没有承认他。

In 1992, his paper was rejected for the Hypertext Conference.

在1992年，他的论文被”超文本会议“否定了。

In 1993,

在1993年，

there was a table at the conference in Seattle,

西雅图的会议上有一个展台，

and a guy called Marc Andreessen

和一个叫马克•安德森的人

was demonstrating his little browser for the World Wide Web.

来展示他那关于万维网的小浏览器。

And I saw it, and I thought, yep, that's it.

我看到了，我认为，就这样了。

And the very next year, in 1994, we had the conference here in Edinburgh,

就在下一年，1994年，我们在爱丁堡这里开了个会议，

and I had no opposition in having Tim Berners-Lee as the keynote speaker.

我对让蒂姆•伯纳斯李做主讲人没有任何意见。

So that puts me in pretty illustrious company.

因此我进了非常著名的公司。

There was a guy called Dick Rowe

曾经有个人叫迪克•罗，

who was at Decca Records and turned down The Beatles.

这个人曾经在迪卡唱片工作并且拒绝了甲壳虫乐队。

There was a guy called Gary Kildall

曾经也有个人叫加里•希达尔，

who went flying his plane

这个人去驾驶他的飞机，

when IBM came looking for an operating system

当IBM为了IBM个人电脑

for the IBM PC,

寻找一个操作系统的时候，

and he wasn't there, so they went back to see Bill Gates.

他当时不在那里，所以他们回去见了比尔•盖茨。

And the 12 publishers

还有12家出版商，

who turned down J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, I guess.

那些拒绝了J.K 罗琳的哈利波特的人，我想。

On the other hand, there's Marc Andreessen

从另一方面来说，还有马克•安德森，

who wrote the world's first browser for the World Wide Web.

这个写出了世界上第一个万维网浏览器的人。

And according to Fortune magazine,

根据财富杂志，

he's worth 700 million dollars.

他现在身价7亿美元。

But is he happy?

但他快乐吗？

(Laughter)

（笑声）

(Applause)

（掌声）