The problem with trees Many systems are organized hierarchically. The CERNDOC documentation system is an example, as is the Unix file system, and the VMS/HELP system. A tree has the practical advantage of giving every node a unique name. However, it does not allow the system to model the real world. For example, in a hierarchical HELP system such as VMS/HELP, one often gets to a lead on a tree such as: HELP COMPILER SOURCE_FORMAT PRAGMAS DEFAULTS only to find a reference to another leaf: Please see HELP COMPILER COMMAND OPTIONS DEFAULTS PRAGMAS and it is necessary to leave the system and re-enter it. What was needed was a link from one node to another, because in this case the information was not naturally organized into a tree. Tim Berners-Lee, Seeing With Fresh Eyes A City Is Not a Tree hierarchywww
Cool URIs don't change An Essay by Tim Berners-Lee www.w3.org What makes a cool URI? A cool URI is one which does not change. What sorts of URI change? URIs don't change: people change them. The User Interface of URLs www
The Waste Land A Poem by T.S. Eliot www.poetryfoundation.org HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIMEA handful of dustWho walks beside you?Has it begun to sprout?Fragments solitudesociety
A handful of dust There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust. feardarkness
Who walks beside you? Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another religionwalking
Has it begun to sprout? "That corpse you planted last year in your garden, Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?" deathgrowthgardens