
14 Chapter 1 The Multimedia Revolution
be able to add one’s own private links to and from public information. One must also be
able to annotate links, as well as nodes, privately”(Berners-Lee 2001, 198–9). Finally, in
keeping with his conception of a flexible
web of information, Berners-Lee insisted
upon “non-centralization.” “Information
systems,” he insisted, “start small and
grow. They also start isolated and then
merge. A new system must allow exist-
ing systems to be linked together with-
out requiring any central control or
coordination” (198).
Berners-Lee had identified the essen-
tial conditions for the emergence of
a r