Comments on Forgotten Forefather: Paul Otlet

Chris Butler — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:57:36 GMT

Alex,

I happened to find this after reading your other article on Otlet from the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/science/17mund.html?pag…)- thanks for shedding some light on such a visionary individual, especially in light of the current movement towards a semantic web.

For the sake of conversation, here’s a link to the biographical documentary on Otlet hosted by the Internet Archive:
http://www.archive.org/details/paulotlet/

Chris

Willy AUBERT — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:53:35 GMT

a book in french describe in deep the live and the work of Paul Otlet :
L’homme qui voulait classer le monde – Françoise Levie – Les Impressions Nouvelles www.lesimpressionsnouvelles.com
The MUNDANEUM in MONS (Belgium) is showing all the “rest” of this fabulous collection

Rodrigo Ronda — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:51:48 GMT

Very good article. I said that, if all people who make information architecture jobs seek intro Information Science deep, we going find many answers. Thanks Alex.

J Fischer — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:51:48 GMT

more info & links in this article:

Union of International Associations—Virtual Organization:
Paul Otlet’s 100-year Hypertext Conundrum ?

http://laetusinpraesens.org/docs/otlethyp.php

barnaby — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:51:48 GMT

fascinating, it also makes sense when viewed from the lullius-bruno-fludd axis of Renaissance memory systems which were primitive databases based on juxtaposing concentric wheels.

here’s some info:

http://www.silcom.com/~dlp/yates.html

Alex Wright — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:01:28 GMT

For further reading, I would recommend perusing Michael Buckland’s list of Otlet resources at http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~buckland/otletbib.html).

Also, Françoise Levie’s documentary “The Man Who Wanted to Classify the World” provides an excellent general introduction to Otlet (see the film clip in the ””Traité” section of the article – you can order a VHS version of the film from info@sofidoc.be).

Mike Steckel — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:01:23 GMT

I first heard of Otlet from a book ASIST published several years ago on Information Science history. It has several articles on him.

Info is here:

http://www.asis.org/Publications/bookstore/historical_stu…

Jacob Patton — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:51:47 GMT

What a fascinating article! How can I find out more about Paul Otlet? (Amazon only lists one book—International Organization and Dissemination of Knowledge: Selected Essays of Paul Otlet—and it’s out of print.)

Mike Steckel — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:51:47 GMT

Thanks Alex! This is one of those articles I have always hoped someone would write. A fascinating man who deserves to be better remembered.