Self Discovery In the Internet and World Wide Web

This paper explores the concept of self-discovery in the Internet and the Worldwide Web.  In the Internet self-discovery means that the Internet is able to grow and reconfigure with minimal human intervention. Networks in the Internet discover new networks as they join. When a network goes off line, the others discover new routes to keep the flow of information alive.

In the Web, self-discovery is the ability of computers to understand document content so the machines can help create links between the documents. As new content is published new links are created and revised. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, is extending the Web's original concept into what he calls the Semantic Web.

The paper also examines how both the Internet and the Web have emerged as global mediums, the former facilitating electronic communications and the latter using the first to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration. Their rise to global stature is possible because of fundamental choices made by the Internet's designers; the same choices have been extended to the Web. The choices are the creation and adoption of open standards, and decentralized control.