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

譯者: Ana Choi 審譯者: Josie Chen

Well we all know the World Wide Web

我們都知道全球資訊網

has absolutely transformed publishing, broadcasting,

徹底改變了初版、廣播、

commerce and social connectivity,

商業和社會連接，

but where did it all come from?

但它究竟從何而來？

And I'll quote three people:

我將舉出三個人：

Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart and Tim Berners-Lee.

Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart 和 Tim Berners-Lee。

So let's just run through these guys.

因此，讓我們迅速談談這三個人。

This is Vannevar Bush.

這是Vannevar Bush。

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

Vannevar Bush是大戰期間，美國政府的首席科學顧問。

And in 1945,

在1945年，

he published an article in a magazine called Atlantic Monthly.

他曾經在大西洋月刊上發表過一篇文章。

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

文章的題目是〈恰如吾輩所思〉。

And what Vannevar Bush was saying

Vannevar Bush在文章中談到，

was the way we use information is broken.

我們使用資訊的方式是殘破的。

We don't work in terms of libraries

我們並沒有運用術語庫

and catalog systems and so forth.

和目錄系統級諸如此類的工具。

The brain works by association.

大腦是以聯想的原理運行。

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

當思維在想着一個念頭，它一瞬間便聯想着下一個念頭。

And the way information is structured

而資訊結構化的方式

is totally incapable of keeping up with this process.

是完全無法跟上這一個運作程序的。

And so he suggested a machine,

因此，他發表了一台機器，

and he called it the memex.

他所謂的memex。

And the memex would link information,

memex會將

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

一個訊息和另一個相關的訊息不斷加以鏈結。

Now this was in 1945.

這是在1945年的時候。

A computer in those days

在那個年代

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

電腦是特務機關用來破解密碼的工具。

And nobody knew anything about it.

沒有人曉得電腦事幹嘛用的。

So this was before the computer was invented.

這是在電腦發明之前。

And he proposed this machine called the memex.

他發表了這台叫做memex的機器。

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

他有一個將資訊加以鏈結的平台，

and then you could call it up at will.

你可以隨意調用它。

So spinning forward,

故事繼續前進，

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

有個叫做Doug Engelbart的傢伙也讀了這篇文章，

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

他是美國的空軍軍官。

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

他是在遠東的空軍圖書館讀到它。

And he was so inspired by this article,

這篇文章對他產生重大的啟發，

it kind of directed the rest of his life.

甚至影響了他的餘生。

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

到60年代中期，當他在加州史丹佛大學的研究實驗室工作時

when he worked at the Stanford Research Lab in California.

他終於有機會將想法付諸行動。

He built a system.

他建立了一個系統。

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

據稱該系統的設計目的是用於提升人類的智能。

And in a premonition of today's world

相對於今日的

of cloud computing and softwares of service,

雲端運算和軟體服務而言，

his system was called NLS

他所以設計的系統稱之為 NLS

for oN-Line System.

意即線上系統。

And this is Doug Engelbart.

這就是Doug Engelbart。

He was giving a presentation at the Fall Joint Computer Conference

他當時正在1968年秋季聯合電腦大會上

in 1968.

發表簡報。

What he showed --

他所演示的--

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

他坐在這樣的舞台上，他示範了這一個系統。

He had his head mic like I've got.

他戴著像我一樣麥克風。

And he works this system.

來操作這一個系統。

And you can see, he's working between documents

各位可以看到，他在各種文件

and graphics and so forth.

和圖表之間切換作業。

And he's driving it all

而他完全是

with this platform here,

以這個平台來操作，

with a five-finger keyboard

透過五指操作鍵盤

and the world's first computer mouse,

和世界上第一個電腦滑鼠，

which he specially designed in order to do this system.

這是他為了操作這個系統而特別設計出來的。

So this is where the mouse came from as well.

而這也是滑鼠的由來。

So this is Doug Engelbart.

這就是 Doug Engelbart。

The trouble with Doug Engelbart's system

Doug Engelbart的系統遇到的麻煩是

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

在那個年代，電腦動輒耗資數百萬英鎊。

So for a personal computer,

因此，想擁有一台個人電腦，

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

就像買架私人飛機一樣得花上幾百萬英鎊；

it wasn't really very practical.

是相當不實際的。

But spin on to the 80s

時間來到80年代，

when personal computers did arrive,

當個人電腦終於出現，

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

接著就出現這種建立於個人電腦上的空間。

And my company, OWL

而我的公司，OWL

built a system called Guide for the Apple Macintosh.

成立了一個名為蘋果麥金塔指南的系統。

And we delivered the world's first hypertext system.

我們發表了世界上第一個超文本系統。

And this began to get a head of steam.

這也刺激了後續的發展。

Apple introduced a thing called HyperCard,

蘋果公司推出所謂的HyperCard，

and they made a bit of a fuss about it.

他們亦就此大做文章。

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

在推出的當天，蘋果在〈華爾街日報〉刊登了長達12頁的增刊。

The magazines started to cover it.

各大雜誌也開始來報導介紹這項產品。

Byte magazine and Communications at the ACM

Byte雜誌和國際資訊學術協會(ACM)的通信情報刊物

had special issues covering hypertext.

也針對超文本進行了特別專題報導。

We developed a PC version of this product

本公司開發了這個產品的PC版本

as well as the Macintosh version.

以及麥金塔(Macintosh)版本。

And our PC version became quite mature.

而我們的PC版本發展得相當成熟。

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

這是80年代中後期這個系統在運算中的一些例子。

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

你可以透過電腦網路來傳送文件檔案。

We developed a system such

我們開發了一個系統，

that it had a markup language based on html.

它有以 HTML 爲基礎的標記語言。

We called it hml: hypertext markup language.

我們把它稱之為 HML：超文本標記語言。

And the system was capable of doing

透過電腦網路串聯，這個系統有能力

very, very large documentation systems over computer networks.

去處理非常，非常大的文件編製系統。

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

所以我在1990年11月下旬把這個系統

in late November 1990.

帶到巴黎附近的凡爾賽貿易展。

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

一個名為 Tim Beneres-Lee 的年輕男子向我走來，

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

說：「你是Ian Ritchie？」我說：「是啊。」

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

他說：「我需要和你談談。」

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

他告訴我那個他稱為全球資訊網的系統提案。

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

我當時想, 這名稱還真是自命不凡，

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

特別是這整個系統不過是在他辦公室的電腦上運行罷了。

But he was completely convinced that his World Wide Web

但他是完全相信他的全球資訊網

would take over the world one day.

終有一天會獨霸世界。

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

他試著說服我為它編寫瀏覽器，

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

因為他的系統沒有任何像是製圖、字型或版面的東西；

it was just plain text.

它只是純文本。

I thought, well, you know, interesting,

我認為，各位曉得，還蠻有趣的，

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

不過某個從歐洲核子研究組織(CERN)來的傢伙，他對這檔事沒興趣。

So we didn't do it.

因此，我們並沒有這樣做。

In the next couple of years,

在後續幾年中，

the hypertext community didn't recognize him either.

超文本社區也沒有認同他。

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

在1992年，他的論文被超文本會議拒絕。

In 1993,

在1993年，

there was a table at the conference in Seattle,

在一場於西雅圖舉行的會議上,

and a guy called Marc Andreessen

一個叫做Marc Andreessen的小伙子

was demonstrating his little browser for the World Wide Web.

展示了他的小全球資訊網瀏覽器。

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

我看到它，我想，沒錯，就是這樣。

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

來年，在1994年，我們在愛丁堡會議，

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

我對邀請 Tim Berners-Lee 作為演說主講人一事完全沒有異議。

So that puts me in pretty illustrious company.

因此，這讓我躋身一群名人之列。

There was a guy called Dick Rowe

以前在迪卡唱片

who was at Decca Records and turned down The Beatles.

有個叫做Dick Rowe的傢伙，他拒絕了披頭四。

There was a guy called Gary Kildall

有個叫Gary Kidall的傢伙,

who went flying his plane

在 IBM 要找人

when IBM came looking for an operating system

為 IBM PC 進行系統操作時，

for the IBM PC,

跑去駕駛他的私人飛機，

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

因為他當時不在，所以 IBM 回頭找上了比爾蓋茲。

And the 12 publishers

還有我猜，大概 12 間

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

拒絕了 J.K. 羅琳的哈利波特原稿的出版社。

On the other hand, there's Marc Andreessen

另一方面，有Marc Andreessen,

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

他寫出了全世界第一個全球資訊網瀏覽器。

And according to Fortune magazine,

另外根據「財富」雜誌報導，

he's worth 700 million dollars.

他擁有 700 萬美元的身價。

But is he happy?

但他快樂嗎？

(Laughter)

(笑聲)

(Applause)

(掌聲)