.
Dear Tim,
Not that this is important to you, but before the thought occured to me to write you this, I was scribbling something for Jeff Jarvis (I just read his recent book, What Would Google Do? It's amazing!!!), during which time I can't help but think that I have skipped too many people to whom I should've written first (Oh, I should write first to Brin and Page, oh and that guy, and that guy, and that guy, etc). And your name finally came up. If there is anyone to whom I should write a thank-you letter, your name should have come up in an instant, if not the first (I apologize, I guess).
At this moment I'm holding a teaching job. I don't have much confident in what I do. I never thought of myself as a scientist, but I very much love knowledge. I love acquiring them. My dad thought me about finding out anything I wish to know. And knowing things on my own terms has never been disappointing, pleasurable, in fact; and that makes schools, to me, bitches. It never bores me to know what people know, and especially how they come to know what they know.
Not until in my college years, when one particular aspiring professor made me realize, that schooling can at the same time be the platforms where knowledge are transferred and distributed , instead of merely an item on my daily schedule. To have them (knowledge) multiply and prosper, he thought me (how cool is that?). I'm a sucker for sharing thoughts ever since. What especially my professor helped me realized is that I wish to work in education; not as teaching staff, but as environmental system developer instead. I think I would be good at making things possible for people to learn (but I could be wrong, haha). But for now I'm holding on to teaching because it lets me broadcast what I think exciting, in addition to useful, for people to know (which may very much serve a personal bias). I love sharing them so much, I'm having difficulties to leave this position.
On sharing, you of all people should know much much much better.
I've read the stories about how you came up with the idea of the worldwide web; that you were a supervising researcher at CERN, that you created it so that you can supervise the works of 5000-ish researchers whose data are scattered inside thousands of different computers, so that you can supervise them from just about anywhere, and especially so that all those 5000-ish researchers can 'talk' to one another; and that you made the patent and kept it for free so that one day the 'world' (is that why you call it the WORLDwide web?) can have a good taste of it, too. Oh, and I read, too, that you were honored much late for it (not that I think you're expecting for one). I guess I'm not the only one who at times take you for granted. It should not be so.
How does it feel to see your work be used by a billion people (and counting)? (I'm one of them. I love your work, and that's an understatement). How does it feel to see your work changed, changes, and will keep changing the running of the world? (I'd ask the same thing to Google guys, if they answer me, I'll let you know). What kind of person do all those knowlege make you? Good one I hope. Good one, I wish that to you.
So for what you have invented and share: thank you, thank you, thank you (and the rest of my gratitude, I will pay them forward, if you don't mind). And good luck with semantic web (I hear you're working on it).
Sincerely yours,
adih.
---
PS:
* More about Tim-Berners Lee
* More about Semantic Web
* More about Jeff Jarvis
* More about What Would Google Do?
Dear Tim,
Not that this is important to you, but before the thought occured to me to write you this, I was scribbling something for Jeff Jarvis (I just read his recent book, What Would Google Do? It's amazing!!!), during which time I can't help but think that I have skipped too many people to whom I should've written first (Oh, I should write first to Brin and Page, oh and that guy, and that guy, and that guy, etc). And your name finally came up. If there is anyone to whom I should write a thank-you letter, your name should have come up in an instant, if not the first (I apologize, I guess).
At this moment I'm holding a teaching job. I don't have much confident in what I do. I never thought of myself as a scientist, but I very much love knowledge. I love acquiring them. My dad thought me about finding out anything I wish to know. And knowing things on my own terms has never been disappointing, pleasurable, in fact; and that makes schools, to me, bitches. It never bores me to know what people know, and especially how they come to know what they know.
Not until in my college years, when one particular aspiring professor made me realize, that schooling can at the same time be the platforms where knowledge are transferred and distributed , instead of merely an item on my daily schedule. To have them (knowledge) multiply and prosper, he thought me (how cool is that?). I'm a sucker for sharing thoughts ever since. What especially my professor helped me realized is that I wish to work in education; not as teaching staff, but as environmental system developer instead. I think I would be good at making things possible for people to learn (but I could be wrong, haha). But for now I'm holding on to teaching because it lets me broadcast what I think exciting, in addition to useful, for people to know (which may very much serve a personal bias). I love sharing them so much, I'm having difficulties to leave this position.
On sharing, you of all people should know much much much better.
I've read the stories about how you came up with the idea of the worldwide web; that you were a supervising researcher at CERN, that you created it so that you can supervise the works of 5000-ish researchers whose data are scattered inside thousands of different computers, so that you can supervise them from just about anywhere, and especially so that all those 5000-ish researchers can 'talk' to one another; and that you made the patent and kept it for free so that one day the 'world' (is that why you call it the WORLDwide web?) can have a good taste of it, too. Oh, and I read, too, that you were honored much late for it (not that I think you're expecting for one). I guess I'm not the only one who at times take you for granted. It should not be so.
How does it feel to see your work be used by a billion people (and counting)? (I'm one of them. I love your work, and that's an understatement). How does it feel to see your work changed, changes, and will keep changing the running of the world? (I'd ask the same thing to Google guys, if they answer me, I'll let you know). What kind of person do all those knowlege make you? Good one I hope. Good one, I wish that to you.
So for what you have invented and share: thank you, thank you, thank you (and the rest of my gratitude, I will pay them forward, if you don't mind). And good luck with semantic web (I hear you're working on it).
Sincerely yours,
adih.
---
PS:
* More about Tim-Berners Lee
* More about Semantic Web
* More about Jeff Jarvis
* More about What Would Google Do?
you're always be one of my fave lecturers... though it was only 1 semester...you were there standing in front of the class and sharing all knowledge in your head to me...thanks...
ReplyDelete