[ih] We can hang up now, it's all done.

[Larry Press]

> But I am sad to see no mention of Gopher and Archie (and hytelnet) which 

Don't forget Veronica and Jughead.


> I believe had to have been the beginnings of the World Wide Web.


Where does anything begin?  Hypertext was preceded by linear text and 
was foreshadowed in Vannevar Bush's article "As We May Think." Folks 
like Ted Nelson and Ben Shneiderman built tools (TIES) and popularized 
the idea.  As far as I know, gopher was first on the Net, but its 
capability was a subset of a system like TIES.  This is not to put 
Gopher down -- it was both useful and a terrific demonstration of the 
potential value of the Internet -- an eye opener.

(The first time I fired up a Web browser and looked at pictures of 
dinosaurs at a college in Hawaii, I thought -- "big deal -- Gopher with 
pictures."  It is safe to say I messed the boat on that one).

It is hard to say who "invented" anything -- often it is the first 
successful entrepreneur who gets the credit.

Larry