Branches

Main Branches

Secondary Branches

History

-originates after French Wars > Fifth French War (1892-5), with a spirit of pacifist utopianism
-one French author, Paul Otlet, seeks to establish an institution to consolidate knowledge of humanity
-and transmit it across borders
-in a "World Brain"
-successfully includes it in Charter for an International Forum
-gathers knowledge of all types
-not just books, also newspapers, magazines, and tabledisks
-and seeks to organize all this knowledge together into a single system
-data is converted into a microfilm format, and stored like that
-books either read from special readers, or just printed off and sent out
-initially uses index card to this end but instead decides to use Analyzers
-to organize and index this new data and copy it in the form of microfilm
-essentially, data now organized by the Universal Decimal Categorization
-which consists of three digit numbers, each of which represents some piece of data
-beyond this, indexing function invented for this purpose
-function which takes in string, then outputs a series of numbers which are guaranteed to be unique per string
-Analyzers purpose-built for this purpose, analogue
-combined with general three digit number as its decimal
-based on this index, placed in the data warehouse by the number
-consisting of the microfilm, the [Baudot code], and a list of associations on an additional, smaller roll of [Baudot code]
-associations being links between this data and other data, with an associated description on nature of their link
-additionally, several branches beyond Aix-la-Chapelle exist
-exact copies of data, with moves of new data every three months
-also data checked, consists of:
-adding together the last digits of the several indices per section and finding they're the right sum
-if they're not, isolated by adding together digits by subsection (and smaller) to find right data
-to distribute this, done by a few ways
-knowledge distilled into several encyclopedias, to be distributed around the world with microfilm
-microfilm records printed or disks pressed to be read
-or else there's a tape of [Baudot] code which is folded into a telegraph to be transmitted
-in the form of a text telegraph message which gets printed off on the other end

-this system is one which there is talk of improving
-combining several related-index microfilms and [Baudot] code tapes into singular
-with there being additional [Baudot] code describing where the start and stop of separate indices are
-this means that now, to look up appropriate data
-hook up lookup analyzer and type appropriate index
-then the reels are scrolled to appropriate position
-then read into output
-does make the act of adding data a bit tough
-need to copy over reels then add new data then continue to copy it
-means adding data is done every three months
-Aix-la-Chapelle acts as the "master" copy of the documents and other ones are "servant" copies which send it over
-and copy it down exactly

-main branches are additionally linked to several secondary branches
-largely main universities in several countries
-most particularly universities in Europe