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239 lines
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<title>Tim Berners-Lee: WWW and UU and I</title>
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<p><a href="Overview.html">Tim Berners-Lee</a></p>
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<h2>The World Wide Web and the "Web of Life"</h2>
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<p>1998</p>
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<p>People have often asked me whether the Web design was influenced by
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Unitarian Universalist philosophy. I have to say that it wasn't explicitly,
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as I developed the Web well before I came across Unitarian Universalism at
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all. But looking back on it, I suppose that there are some parallels between
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the philosophies.</p>
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<h3>Where I'm coming from</h3>
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<p>Like many people, I had a religious upbringing which I rejected as a
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teenager: in my case it was a protestant Christian (Church of England)
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upbringing. I rejected it just after being "confirmed" and told how essential
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it was to believe in all kinds of unbelievable things. Since then I have
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discovered that many of the people around me who were "Christians" in fact
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used a sort of loose interpretation of some of that stuff, but it relieved a
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great tension just to say no. In fact, confirmation is when you say "yes",
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and well, we all make mistakes. In fact the need for the basis for Christian
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philosophy but without the dogma was a vacuum for many years.</p>
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<p>If you're used to other religions you might be confused by UUism being
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called a religion, but it qualifies I think. Like many people, I came back to
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religion when we had children. Why does everybody do this? Is it just that
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one feels that values and things are important for kids though one wouldn't
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have time for it otherwise? I hope not. Or is it that having kids is such a
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direct, strong, stark experience that it brings thoughts of life and love
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again bubbling up through the turgid morass which otherwise clogs our
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thinking? Or is it that it gives us an excuse? But for whatever, happenstance
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had our family living in the Boston area, where UU churches abound, and we
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were lucky enough to hit on a great one, with a great minister.</p>
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<p>Unitarian Universalists are people who are concerned about all the things
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which your favorite religion is concerned about, but allow or even require
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their belief to be compatible with reason. They are hugely tolerant and
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decidedly liberal. The fundamental value and dignity of every human being is
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a core philosophy, and they have a healthy respect for those whose beliefs
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differ. They meet in churches instead of wired hotels, and discuss justice,
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peace, conflict, and morality rather than protocols and data formats, but in
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other ways the peer respect is very similar to that of the Internet
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Engineering Task Force. Both are communities which I really appreciate.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.uua.org/">The Unitarian Universality
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Association</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://www.ietf.org/">The Internet Engineering Task
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Force</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Can you compare?</h3>
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<p>And in fact, when you look at the way Unitarians feel society works, and
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the way a lot of the Internet and the Web works, it might be fun to draw some
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comparisons. Let's take this all with a pinch of salt. People, after all, are
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people, and machines are machines. Unitarians do not have a peer respect for
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machines! But let's do it as an exercise.</p>
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<h3>Decentralization</h3>
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<p>The Internet community always used to be decentralized as the Internet
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itself. Newsgroups have no central server, and no central authority to
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determine what is and what isn't a new group. When I was developing the Web
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in 1990, the Internet development community was largely academic in
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membership and had a very academic style. People were and are judged on what
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they say rather than who they are. As Dave Clark said,</p>
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<blockquote>
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"We have no kings or presidents. We believe in rough consensus and running
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code."</blockquote>
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<p>There is very little structure. There is the idea that society can run
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without a hierarchical bureaucratic government being involved at every step,
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if only we can hit on the right set of rules for peer-peer interaction. So
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where design of the Internet and the Web is a search for set of rules which
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will allow computers to work together in harmony, so our spiritual and social
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quest is for a set of rules which allow people to work work together in
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harmony.</p>
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<p>It used to be the case that internet protocols were designed with some
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clear vision of the final harmonious interworking in mind, whereas laws and
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rules of behaviour tended to be put together without a clear common
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understanding of what tomorrow's world would look like. Nowadays, even Web
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developments happen because of our gut feeling that certain properties of the
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Web will lead to great things, but we often expect the results to be amazing
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and good, but unpredictable.</p>
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<h3>Tolerance</h3>
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<p>In this decentralized world, the first common principle is of tolerance.
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The general principle struck me very strongly when I was logging on to the
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mainframe system at CERN many years ago, before CERN had internetworking. In
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those days terminals were all connected up by to terminal concentrators which
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switch you if you were lucky to a free port on the hallowed mainframe. If
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there wasn't a free port, it would keep you in a queue. You could wait for
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typically 35 minutes and then it would suddenly ask you whether you were
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there. You had a few seconds in which to hit a key to be connected, and if
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you missed it you would be dropped from the queue. This ratio of 35 minutes
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to 20 seconds I called the tolerance ratio - in that case, intolerance ratio!
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It was some indication that the system considered its time about 100 times
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more valuable than yours. The market pressure for terminal lines had
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increased their "value" to the level that to deserve one you had to nervously
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hover over a silent terminal waiting for that special moment. It makes you
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think about your own tolerance ratio. How much are you prepared to go out of
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your way, compared with the extent you require to go out of theirs?</p>
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<p>I don't know who formulated the principle of tolerance in Internet circles
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first as "Be conservative in what you do and liberal in what you expect". I
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have heard Vint Cerf quote it. It is a guiding rule in internet protocol
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design. Always say "http:"in lower case, but in practice understand "HTTP:"
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too.</p>
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<p>Unitarian Universalism is famous for its tolerance. UU people don't
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generally go around trying to convert other people. They respect those who
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believe in some sort of a God different from theirs (if they use the term).
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Recently I heard a UU remark (I paraphrase from memory - it was not written
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down),</p>
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<blockquote>
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"I have always been an argumentative type - always tending to play devils
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advocate and skeptical of everything. I was quite expecting to be thrown
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out of this church like I've been thrown out of everywhere else. I was
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staggered to be accepted. I was even more surprised to find that in fact,
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the place was full of people just as argumentative as me!"</blockquote>
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<p>UUs perhaps share the view that "If there is one thing I can't stand -
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it's intolerance!". They fight racism and inequality. They get really upset
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when people are killed and tortured because they don't belief in the One True
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God or the One True Anything.</p>
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<p>UUs actually believe in love. But that doesn't seem to bear analogy with
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computers!</p>
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<h3>The Test of Independent Invention</h3>
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<p>There's a test I use for technology which the Consortium is thinking of
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adopting, and I'll call it the Independent Invention test. Just suppose that
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someone had invented exactly the same system somewhere else, but made all the
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arbitrary decisions differently. Suppose after many years of development and
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adoption, the two systems came together. Would they work together?</p>
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<p>Take the Web. I tried to make it pass the test. Suppose someone had (and
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it was quite likely) invented a World Wide Web system somewhere else with the
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same principles. Suppose they called it the Multi Media Mesh <sup>(tm)</sup>
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and based it on Media Resource Identifiers<sup>(tm)</sup>, the MultiMedia
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Transport Protocol<sup>(tm)</sup>, and a Multi Media Markup
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Language<sup>(tm)</sup>. After a few years, the Web and the Mesh meet. What
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is the damage?</p>
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<ul>
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<li>A huge battle, involving the abandonment of projects, conversion or
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loss of data?</li>
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<li>Division of the world by a border commission into two separate
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communities?</li>
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<li>Smooth integration with only incremental effort?</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Obviously we are looking for the latter option. Fortunately, we could
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immediately extend URIs to include "mmtp://" and extend MRIs to include
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"http;\\". We could make gateways, and on the better browsers immediately
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configure them to go through a gateway when finding a URI of the new type.
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The URI space is universal: it covers all addresses of all accessible
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objects. But it does not have to be the only universal space. Universal, but
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not unique.</p>
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<p>Imagine a Virtue and Veracity church growing up independently, with the
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same UU principles but none of the same history of vocabulary. What would
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happen when one of the VV members strolled by accident into a UU church? An
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enlightened smile of recognition, the same warm feeling which someone who has
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really unknowingly been a UU all their life feels when walking into a
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congregation of UUs.</p>
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<p>It's not the same when the followers of divine prophet1 meet the followers
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of divine prophet2. Divine prophets(often!) know who they are and know they
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are the only ones. The One True Churches worships the One True Gods and in
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many cases convince others of their Oneness and Trueness with swords and fire
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and destruction. The philosophies fail the test of Independent Invention. The
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result of this interoperability failure is not an error code or an unreadable
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Web page but hatred and jealousy, war and persecution.</p>
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<p>Don't get me wrong. I believe that much of the philosophy of life
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associated with many religions is much more sound than the dogma which comes
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along with it. So I do respect them, and you if you belong to one. UUism has
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looks for its philosophy to contributions and writings from many religions,
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western and eastern.</p>
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<h3>Truth</h3>
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<p>A lot of people ask me whether I am disappointed that the Web has taken on
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such a lot of commercial material, rather than being a pure academic space.
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In fact, I know it could not be universal if it did not allow any form of
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communication. It must be able to represent any thought, any datum, any idea,
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that one might have. So in this way the Web and the UU concept of faith are
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similar in that both serve as a place for thought, and the importance of the
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quest for truth, but without labelling any one true solution. The quest for
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the truth is always accompanied by skepticism of anyone claiming to have
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found it.</p>
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<h3>Hope</h3>
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<p>The is one other thing that comes to mind as common between the Internet
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folks and the UUs. The whole spread of the Web happened not because of a
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decision and a mandate from any authority, but because a whole bunch of
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people across the 'Net picked it up and brought up Web clients and servers,
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it actually happened. The actual explosion of creativity, and the coming into
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being of the Web was the result of thousands of individuals playing a small
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part. In the first couple of years, often this was not for a direct gain, but
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because they had an inkling that it was the right way to go, and a gleam of
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an exciting future. It is necessary to UU philosophy that such things can
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happen, that we will get to a better state in the end by each playing our
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small part. UUism is full of hope, and the fact that the Web happens is an
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example of a dream coming true and an encouragement to all who hope.</p>
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<p>1998</p>
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<p></p>
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<hr>
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<a href="Overview.html">Back to main Bio</a>
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<p>See also:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://www.uufb.net/sermon.html">Why you should not be a
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Unitarian Universalist</a> By Rev. Dr. Tony Larsen</li>
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<li>"<a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1958.txt">Architectural Principles
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of the Internet</a>", RFC 1958, for principle of tolerance"Be strict when
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sending and tolerant when receiving, section 3.9</li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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