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David J. Ritchie |
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Fermilab |
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Commemorating the Tenth Anniversary of the First
U.S. Web Site At SLAC |
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Through recollections, interviews, and selected
original documents |
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Through a classic study… |
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Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions, (Chicago:The University of Chicago Press, 1996) |
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Perhaps a bit of a force fit – useful to
consider. Kuhn’s terms highlighted. |
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Doing normal science using disparate and
incompatible computing apparatus |
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Puzzle-solving to successfully massage the
information (remember this dance?) |
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DEC, IBM, Amdahl, Mac, PC |
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PDP, VAX, 3090, big endian, little endian… |
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Online, offline, draft, preprint, publication |
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Awareness of anomalies—the difficulty of access
to information. Paradigm? “info. sci. is supposed to make this easy”) |
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Crisis and the Emergence of scientific theories
solutions proposed to eliminate the anomalies |
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Archie, Gopher, Hypertext, HyperCard,
CD-Interactive, U.S. Gov. OSTI Plan (8/92) |
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Fermilab Library Directions (5/90) |
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Information Management as an aspect of an
Experimental Facility (7/90) |
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Equipment Diversity,CD/OLS (10/30/91) |
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Easy for Users (CERN, 5/7/92) |
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Elec. Exch. Of Sci. & Tech. Info (8/92) |
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The destruction of the old paradigm, the search
for and construction of the new. |
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“In early 1992, Ruth Pordes and Jonathan Streets
… were considering the problem of providing information to high energy
physics experimenters. Seeing the WWW presentation to Artificial
Intelligence in High Energy Physics (IHEP’92) at La Londe, France in February
1992, Streets recommended WWW as being ‘the best thing around,’ and OLS
decided to adopt it.” |
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J. Streets, private communication in P. Garrett
and D. Ritchie, Collaborating Over the Web: Libraries and Laboratories,
March 1995, Fermilab-Conf-95/056, p. 2. |
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A period of pronounced professional insecurity |
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Heard about WWW as people learned of it: “Pie in
the sky,” “it may be too gimicky,” “a toy, ”Users will hate it: Arbitrary
info, dead links, no filters. Don’t get involved with it!” |
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Paradigm adoption. In October 1992: |
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WWW Project Preliminary Report and Proposal,
World-Wide Web: WWW Guide, Consultant’s Guide to Computing Division
Supported WWW Servers |
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“Picking up the other end of the stick” |
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“handling the same bundle of data as before but giving them a
different framework.” (Kuhn, p. 85) |
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Organization Site |
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Fermilab Computing Division |
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Document Server |
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Online, Equipment Support (docdb) and Offline
Documents (lib) |
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Experiments |
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E781 – VAX Notes 3/93àWWW 6/93 |
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Working Group to Design a Fermilab Home Page
established (1/94)
by Computing Division Head Joel Butler |
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Judy Jackson (Directorate/Public Affairs) |
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Liz Quigg (CD) |
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David Ritchie (CD), chair. |
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Joel -> David: “I want a brisk pace.” |
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Charge (2/23/94) |
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Note about “work in progress” aspect |
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Memo conveying Deputy Director’s blessing
(3/16/94) |
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Draft status and page (3/21/94) |
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Launch |
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April 11, 1994 |
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April 27, 1994 – 12,000 hits - (top quark) |
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Conveying the new paradigm of www as the way to
provide information by teaching: |
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Industrialists, government bureaucrats, etc… |
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Addressing worries with newly crafted policies |
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Command and Control |
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Funding Agency Sign-Off on Publications |
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Would being on www imply prior publication? |
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Education and Empowerment |
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Anyone could put up a server and publish |
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Didn’t get it – They had their answers |
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Oracle DOE Executive Conference (3/94) |
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Did get it – Fermilab Education Effort |
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Electronic Education Outreach (3/94) |
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Hopefully, got it – Industrial Outreach |
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Fermilab Industrial Affiliates (9/94) |
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Policies – Webmaster Line Management |
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Collaborating Over the Web (3/95) |
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Implementation by Experiments Went on to Teach
Other Colleagues. Only room for one example – many others. |
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E687/E831 – 1995 run – |
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Extensive online use (live displays) |
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Offline (cvs code browser) |
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Administrative – shift schedules |
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Others learned the techniques |
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T. Kuhn on Scientific Revolutions… |
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Change in World View |
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Invisibility – the old paradigm is forgotten |
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Non-computer types at Fermilab report… |
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Can remember when there wasn’t www |
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Know now that there is |
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Can’t remember the in-between |
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T. Kuhn on Scientific Revolutions… |
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Resolution of the Paradigm Crises: |
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Convert everyone to the new paradigm |
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Implement and make progress based upon it |
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Little memory of the old approaches. |
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Anyone seen many stateful forms applications? |
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Aspects concerning progress as Kuhn applies it
to the scientific exploration of the physical world do not seem to fit. |
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Whether a match to Kuhn or not, it’s clearly a
revolution in the sharing of information, nonetheless. |
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Notes