ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ian Ritchie - Software entrepreneur
Ian Ritchie

Why you should listen

Ian Ritchie is chair of iomart plc. and several other computer and learning businesses, including Computer Application Services Ltd., the Interactive Design Institute and Caspian Learning Ltd. He is co-chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, a board member of the Edinburgh International Science Festival and the chair of Our Dynamic Earth, the Edinburgh Science Centre.

Ritchie founded and managed Office Workstations Limited (OWL) in Edinburgh in 1984 and its subsidiary OWL International Inc. in Seattle from 1985. OWL became the first and largest supplier of Hypertext/Hypermedia authoring tools (a forerunner to the World Wide Web) for personal computers based on its Guide product. OWL's customers used its systems to implement large interactive multimedia documentation systems in industry sectors such as automobile, defence, publishing, finance, and education. OWL was sold to Matsushita Electrical Industrial (Panasonic) of Japan in December 1989. He is the author of New Media Publishing: Opportunities from the digital revolution (1996).

He was awarded a CBE in the 2003 New Years Honours list for services to enterprise and education; he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and a Fellow and a past-President of the British Computer Society (1998-99). 

More profile about the speaker
Ian Ritchie | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2011

Ian Ritchie: The day I turned down Tim Berners-Lee

Ian Ritchie: Dagen hvor jeg afviste Tim Berners-Lee

Filmed:
644,332 views

Forestil dig at det er slutningen på 1990 og du har lige mødt en fin ung mand ved navn Tim Berners-Lee som begynder at fortælle dig om hans foreslåede system kaldet World Wide Web (Internettet). Ian Ritchie var der, og... han købte den ikke. En kort fortælling om information, forbindelse og at lære fra sine fejl.
- Software entrepreneur
Ian Ritchie Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:15
Well we all know the WorldVerden WideBred WebWeb
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Vi ved alle at internettet
00:17
has absolutelyabsolut transformedtransformeret publishingforlagsvirksomhed, broadcastingradio-og,
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har forandret udgivelse, tv-udsendelse,
00:21
commercehandel and socialsocial connectivitykonnektivitet,
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handel og sociale forbindelser totalt.
00:23
but where did it all come from?
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Men hvor kom det hele fra?
00:25
And I'll quotecitere threetre people:
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Jeg vil citere tre personer:
00:27
VannevarVannevar BushBush, DougDoug EngelbartEngelbart and TimTim Berners-LeeBerners-Lee.
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Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart og Tim Berners-Lee.
00:30
So let's just runløb throughigennem these guys.
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Lad os lige gennemgå dem.
00:32
This is VannevarVannevar BushBush.
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Dette er Vannevar Bush.
00:34
VannevarVannevar BushBush was the U.S. government'sregeringens chiefchef scientificvidenskabelig adviserrådgiver duringi løbet af the warkrig.
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Han var den amerikanske regerings top videnskabelige rådgiver under krigen,
00:37
And in 1945,
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og i 1945
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he publishedoffentliggjort an articleartiklen in a magazinemagasin calledhedder AtlanticAtlantic MonthlyMånedlige.
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udgav han en artikel i et blad kaldet Atlantic Monthly.
00:42
And the articleartiklen was calledhedder "As We MayMaj Think."
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Artiklen var kaldet "As We May Think" (Som vi kan tænke)
00:45
And what VannevarVannevar BushBush was sayingordsprog
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Og hvad Vannevar Bush sagde
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was the way we use informationinformation is brokengået i stykker.
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var at måden vi bruger information er i stykker.
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We don't work in termsbetingelser of librariesbiblioteker
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Vi virker ikke på samme måde som biblioteker
00:53
and catalogkatalog systemssystemer and so forthfrem.
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og katalogsystemer osv.
00:55
The brainhjerne worksarbejder by associationforening.
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Hjernen virker ved associationer.
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With one itemvare in its thought, it snapssnaps instantlyøjeblikkeligt to the nextNæste itemvare.
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med en genstand i tanken går den øjeblikkeligt over til den næste genstand.
01:00
And the way informationinformation is structuredstruktureret
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og måden information er struktureret
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is totallyhelt incapablestand of keepingbeholde up with this processbehandle.
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er totalt ude af stand til at følge med i den proces.
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And so he suggestedforeslået a machinemaskine,
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Så han foreslog en maskine,
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and he calledhedder it the memexMemex.
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og han kaldte den memexen,
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And the memexMemex would linklink informationinformation,
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og memexen ville koble information,
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one piecestykke of informationinformation to a relatedrelaterede piecestykke of informationinformation and so forthfrem.
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et stykke information til et relateret stykke information osv.
01:14
Now this was in 1945.
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Dette var i 1945
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A computercomputer in those daysdage
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og en computer i de dage
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was something the secrethemmelighed servicestjenester used to use for codekode breakingbreaking.
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var noget efterretningstjenester brugte til at knække koder.
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And nobodyingen knewvidste anything about it.
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og ingen vidste noget om det.
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So this was before the computercomputer was inventedopfundet.
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Så dette var før computeren var opfundet,
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And he proposedforeslog this machinemaskine calledhedder the memexMemex.
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og han foreslog denne maskine kaldet memexen,
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And he had a platformplatform where you linkedknyttet informationinformation to other informationinformation,
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og han havde en platform hvor du koblede information til andet information,
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and then you could call it up at will.
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og så kunne du genkalde det.
01:32
So spinningspinding forwardfrem,
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Hvis vi springer lidt frem,
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one of the guys who readlæse this articleartiklen was a guy calledhedder DougDoug EngelbartEngelbart,
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en af dem der læste artiklen var en mand ved navn Doug Engelbart
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and he was a U.S. AirLuft ForceKraft officerofficer.
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og han var officer i det amerikanske luftvåben.
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And he was readinglæsning it in theirderes librarybibliotek in the FarLangt EastØst.
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Han læste i deres bibliotek i fjernøsten
01:41
And he was so inspiredinspireret by this articleartiklen,
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og han blev så inspireret af artiklen
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it kindvenlig of directedrettet the resthvile of his life.
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at den på en måde styrede resten af hans liv,
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And by the mid-midten60s, he was ablei stand to put this into actionhandling
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og i midt 60'erne var han i stand til at omsætte det til handling
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when he workedarbejdet at the StanfordStanford ResearchForskning LabLab in CaliforniaCalifornien.
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da han arbejdede ved Stanford's forsknings laboratorium i Californien.
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He builtbygget a systemsystem.
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Han byggede et system,
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The systemsystem was designeddesignet to augmentforøge humanhuman intelligenceintelligens, it was calledhedder.
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systemet var designet til at forøge menneskelig intelligens,
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And in a premonitionforudanelse of today'sdagens worldverden
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og i en foruddannelse af nutidens verden
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of cloudSky computingcomputing and softwaressoftware of serviceservice,
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med cloud-computing og service programmer,
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his systemsystem was calledhedder NLSNLS
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Blev hans system kaldet NLS
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for oN-LineoN-Line SystemSystem.
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for oN-Line System.
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And this is DougDoug EngelbartEngelbart.
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og dette er Doug Engelbart.
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He was givinggiver a presentationpræsentation at the FallEfterår JointFælles ComputerComputer ConferenceKonferencen
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Han gav en præsentation ved Fall Joint computer konferencen
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in 1968.
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i 1968.
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What he showedviste --
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Hvad han viste --
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he satsat on a stagescene like this, and he demonstrateddemonstreret this systemsystem.
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han sad på en scene som den her, og han demonstrerede sit system,
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He had his headhoved micmic like I've got.
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han havde en hoved-mikrofon som den jeg har,
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And he worksarbejder this systemsystem.
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og han brugte systemet,
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And you can see, he's workingarbejder betweenmellem documentsDokumenter
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og som i kan se arbejder han imellem dokumenter,
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and graphicsgrafik and so forthfrem.
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grafik osv.
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And he's drivingkørsel it all
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og han styrer det hele
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with this platformplatform here,
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med den platform her.
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with a five-fingerfem keyboardtastatur
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med et fem-fingers tastatur
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and the world'sVerdens first computercomputer mousemus,
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og verdens første computermus.
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whichhvilken he speciallyspecielt designeddesignet in orderbestille to do this systemsystem.
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Som han designede specielt for at lave systemet.
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So this is where the mousemus camekom from as well.
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Så det er her musen kom fra.
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So this is DougDoug EngelbartEngelbart.
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Det var Doug Engelbart.
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The troubleproblemer with DougDoug Engelbart'sEngelbarts systemsystem
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Problemet med Doug Engelbarts system
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was that the computerscomputere in those daysdage costkoste severalflere millionmillion poundspund.
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var at computere dengang kostede flere millioner pund,
02:46
So for a personalpersonlig computercomputer,
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så for en personlig computer,
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a few millionmillion poundspund was like havingat have a personalpersonlig jetJet planefly;
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er nogle millioner pund ligesom at have et personligt jetfly,
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it wasn'tvar ikke really very practicalpraktisk.
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det var ikke særligt praktisk.
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But spinspin- on to the 80s
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Men går vi frem til 80'erne
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when personalpersonlig computerscomputere did arriveankomme,
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da personlige computere ankom,
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then there was roomværelse for this kindvenlig of systemsystem on personalpersonlig computerscomputere.
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blev der plads til denne slags system på personlige computere,
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And my companySelskab, OWLUGLE
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og mit firma, OWL,
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builtbygget a systemsystem calledhedder GuideGuide for the AppleApple MacintoshMacintosh.
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lavede et system kaldet Guide til Apple Macintoshen,
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And we deliveredleveret the world'sVerdens first hypertexthypertekst systemsystem.
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og vi lavede verdens første hypertekst system.
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And this beganbegyndte to get a headhoved of steamdamp.
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dette begyndte at gå hurtigt fremad.
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AppleApple introducedindført a thing calledhedder HyperCardHyperCard,
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Apple introducerede noget kaldet HyperCard,
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and they madelavet a bitbit of a fussballade about it.
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og de gjorde meget ud af det.
03:13
They had a 12-page-side supplementsupplere in the WallVæg StreetStreet JournalJournal the day it launchedlanceret.
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De havde et 12-siders tillæg til Wall Street Journal dagen hvor det blev udgivet.
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The magazinesmagasiner startedstartede to coverdække over it.
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Bladene begyndte at dække det,
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ByteByte magazinemagasin and CommunicationsKommunikation at the ACMACM
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Byte-bladet og Communications ved ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
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had specialsærlig issuesproblemer coveringder dækker hypertexthypertekst.
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Havde special udgivelser der dækkede hypertekst.
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We developedudviklede sig a PCPC versionversion of this productprodukt
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Vi udviklede en PC version af produktet
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as well as the MacintoshMacintosh versionversion.
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og også en Macintosh version.
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And our PCPC versionversion becameblev til quitetemmelig maturemodne.
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Vores PC version blev ret moden,
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These are some exampleseksempler of this systemsystem in actionhandling in the latesent 80s.
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dette er nogle eksempler af systemet i aktion i sen 80'erne.
03:33
You were ablei stand to deliveraflevere documentsDokumenter, were ablei stand to do it over networksnetværk.
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Du var i stand til at sende dokumenter over netværk.
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We developedudviklede sig a systemsystem suchsådan
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Vi udviklede et system
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that it had a markupMarkup languageSprog basedbaseret on htmlHTML.
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så det havde et opmærkningssprog baseret på html.
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We calledhedder it hmlHML: hypertexthypertekst markupMarkup languageSprog.
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vi kaldte det hml: hypertekst opmærkningssprog (Hypertext Markup Language)
03:43
And the systemsystem was capablei stand til at of doing
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og systemet var i stand til at lave
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very, very largestor documentationdokumentation systemssystemer over computercomputer networksnetværk.
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meget, meget store dokumentsystemer over computernetværk,
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So I tooktog this systemsystem to a tradehandle showat vise in VersaillesVersailles nearnær ved ParisParis
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Så jeg tog dette system til en messe i Versailles nær Paris
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in latesent NovemberNovember 1990.
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i sen-november 1990.
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And I was approachednærmede sig by a nicepæn youngung man calledhedder TimTim Berners-LeeBerners-Lee
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Her kom en fin ung mand ved navn Tim Berners-Lee hen til mig,
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who said, "Are you IanIan RitchieRitchie?" and I said, "Yeah."
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og sagde "Er du Ian Ritchie?" og jeg sagde, "Jarh."
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And he said, "I need to talk to you."
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og han sagde "Jeg skal tale med dig."
04:01
And he told me about his proposedforeslog systemsystem calledhedder the WorldVerden WideBred WebWeb.
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og han fortalte mig om hans foreslåede system kaldet World Wide Web.
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And I thought, well, that's got a pretentiousprætentiøs namenavn,
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og jeg tænkte at det var et prætentiøst navn
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especiallyisær sincesiden the wholehel systemsystem ranløb on his computercomputer in his officekontor.
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særligt siden systemet kørte på computeren på hans kontor
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But he was completelyfuldstændig convincedoverbevist that his WorldVerden WideBred WebWeb
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men han var fuldstændigt overbevist om at hans World Wide Web
04:13
would take over the worldverden one day.
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ville overtage verden en dag,
04:15
And he triedforsøgt to persuadeovertale me to writeskrive the browserbrowser for it,
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og han prøvede at overbevise mig om at skrive browseren til det,
04:17
because his systemsystem didn't have any graphicsgrafik or fontsskrifttyper or layoutlayout or anything;
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for hans system havde ingen grafik, skrifttype, layout eller noget som helst,
04:20
it was just plainalmindeligt texttekst.
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det var bare ren tekst.
04:22
I thought, well, you know, interestinginteressant,
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Jeg tænkte : interessant,
04:25
but a guy from CERNCERN, he's not going to do this.
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men en mand fra CERN, han skal ikke lave det her.
04:27
So we didn't do it.
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så vi gjorde det ikke,
04:29
In the nextNæste couplepar of yearsflere år,
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i de næste par år,
04:31
the hypertexthypertekst communityfællesskab didn't recognizegenkende him eitherenten.
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blev han heller ikke anerkendt af hypertekst-fællesskabet.
04:33
In 1992, his paperpapir was rejectedafvist for the HypertextHypertekst ConferenceKonferencen.
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I 1992 blev hans artikel afvist til Hypertekst konferencen.
04:36
In 1993,
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I 1993,
04:39
there was a tabletabel at the conferencekonference in SeattleSeattle,
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var der et bord ved konferencen i Seattle,
04:41
and a guy calledhedder MarcMarc AndreessenAndreessen
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og en mand ved navn Marc Andreessen
04:43
was demonstratingdemonstrerer his little browserbrowser for the WorldVerden WideBred WebWeb.
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demonstrerede hans lille browser til World Wide Web.
04:46
And I saw it, and I thought, yepJep, that's it.
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og jeg så den og tænkte "jep, der er dét!"
04:48
And the very nextNæste yearår, in 1994, we had the conferencekonference here in EdinburghEdinburgh,
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og næste år, i 1994, havde vi konferencen her i Edinburgh,
04:51
and I had no oppositionoppositionen in havingat have TimTim Berners-LeeBerners-Lee as the keynotekeynote speakerhøjttaler.
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og jeg havde intet imod at have Tim Berners-Lee som hovedtaler.
04:55
So that putsputs me in prettysmuk illustrioushæderkronede companySelskab.
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Så alt dette sætter mig i fint selskab,
04:57
There was a guy calledhedder DickDick RoweRowe
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der var en mand ved navn Dick Rowe
04:59
who was at DeccaDecca RecordsPoster and turnedvendt down The BeatlesBeatles.
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der var ved Decca Records og sagde nej til The Beatles.
05:01
There was a guy calledhedder GaryGary KildallKildall
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Der var en mand ved navn Gary Kildall
05:03
who wentgik flyingflyvende his planefly
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som fløj en tur i sit fly
05:05
when IBMIBM camekom looking for an operatingdrift systemsystem
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da IBM kom og ledte efter et operativsystem
05:07
for the IBMIBM PCPC,
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til IBM pc'en,
05:09
and he wasn'tvar ikke there, so they wentgik back to see BillBill GatesGates.
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og han var der ikke, så de tog tilbage og mødte Bill Gates,
05:11
And the 12 publishersudgivere
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og de 12 udgivere
05:13
who turnedvendt down J.K. Rowling'sRowlings HarryHarry PotterPotter, I guessgætte.
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som sagde nej til J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter.
05:16
On the other handhånd, there's MarcMarc AndreessenAndreessen
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På den anden side er der Marc Andreessen
05:18
who wroteskrev the world'sVerdens first browserbrowser for the WorldVerden WideBred WebWeb.
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som skrev verdens første browser til World Wide Web.
05:20
And accordingifølge to FortuneFortune magazinemagasin,
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og ifølge Fortune-bladet
05:22
he's worthværdi 700 millionmillion dollarsdollars.
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har han 3.8 milliarder kroner.
05:24
But is he happylykkelig?
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Men er han glad?
05:26
(LaughterLatter)
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(Latter)
05:28
(ApplauseBifald)
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(Bifald)

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Ian Ritchie - Software entrepreneur
Ian Ritchie

Why you should listen

Ian Ritchie is chair of iomart plc. and several other computer and learning businesses, including Computer Application Services Ltd., the Interactive Design Institute and Caspian Learning Ltd. He is co-chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, a board member of the Edinburgh International Science Festival and the chair of Our Dynamic Earth, the Edinburgh Science Centre.

Ritchie founded and managed Office Workstations Limited (OWL) in Edinburgh in 1984 and its subsidiary OWL International Inc. in Seattle from 1985. OWL became the first and largest supplier of Hypertext/Hypermedia authoring tools (a forerunner to the World Wide Web) for personal computers based on its Guide product. OWL's customers used its systems to implement large interactive multimedia documentation systems in industry sectors such as automobile, defence, publishing, finance, and education. OWL was sold to Matsushita Electrical Industrial (Panasonic) of Japan in December 1989. He is the author of New Media Publishing: Opportunities from the digital revolution (1996).

He was awarded a CBE in the 2003 New Years Honours list for services to enterprise and education; he is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; and a Fellow and a past-President of the British Computer Society (1998-99). 

More profile about the speaker
Ian Ritchie | Speaker | TED.com

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