The original WWW: Web lessons from the early days of radio

✍ Scribed by Ward Hanson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 198 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1094-9968
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6653(199822)12:3<46::aid-dir5>3.0.co;2-i

✦ Synopsis

How do you evaluate a technology that has completely captured the public's imagination? A technology perceived as so rich in promise that thousands of articles in newspapers and magazines explain its workings to their readers. A technology that has come to indicate innovativeness, where failure to appreciate it is taken as a sure sign of belonging to the wrong side of a generational divide. Which has led, almost overnight, to the creation of new companies, brands, industries, and fortunes. One that commentators claim will revolutionize not only public culture, but also education and commerce. And, in moments of excess, a technology hailed as the best new chance for creating a peaceful world.

Such a dilemma confronted the radio analyst in 1922. The technology was the original WWW, World Wide Wireless. When the RCA Corporation took this logo in 1920 (Figure 1), it felt that its new technology promised profits and a reasonable business