Ur Internet

The New York Times takes a look at Belgium's Mundaneum; an early 20^th century attempt at the ultimate catalogue of human knowledge.

What makes it so interesting is that it's creator M Paul Otlet envisioned the next step as an electronic interactive system similar in many ways to the modern Web. The article overstates the case, forgetting that Nikola Tesla and Buckminster Fuller had similar ideas well before Olet, but it's still a fascinating story.