~isthetrue structure?
This reminds me of the problems posed to us in CS200 re: data structures and algorithms. However, back when this was written, I'd imagine storage and minimization of runtime was much more vital than it is now. That makes me wonder: In the future, will we care so much about runtime and storage space when machines become (seemingly) faster and more expansive with each year.
The structure a user sees shouldbe the intrinsic structure
This could be an early example of UI/UX, or frontend/backend structured design.
object oriented programming techniques!
New CS15 final project idea???
copyright enforcement and data security. These are of secondary importance at CERN
I started laughing at this part, because I see people treat data security and copyright enforcement exactly the same after all these years, even though the stakes are now massively higher!
Perhaps a linked information system will allow us to see the real structure of the organisation in which we work.
This reminds me of learning about Graphs in CS200. Graph analysis is still a huge part of how we understand and make decisions today, from seeing relationships between social media profiles to city planning (where should we put new commuter rail routes, etc). Amazing how a virtual system can make such waves in the real world, to the point where buildings, streets, transit systems are built around it.
Typically, a discussion under one newsgroup will develop into a different topic, at which point it ought to be in a different part of the tree.
This still happens on sites like reddit, at which point the thread is usually locked rather than moved as is suggested here. I wonder if there is a better way to do things that fosters discussion in a more flexible manner and allows it to still be organized to look at. Keyword search helps somewhat in finding relevant information in "off-topic" places, but it's an unintentional workaround not specialized to this issue.
circles and arrows, where circles and arrows can stand for anything
Early nodes and pointers! Honestly, this explanation of the merits of this type of data structure does more for me than any explanation of why we use nodes and pointers in any CS class I've had. It's incredibly flexible and applicable to almost anything, which is probably why the web has been able to expand and evolve in such interesting ways.
for example, questions like
Now, we (I, at least) barely ever think of "the web" as bundles of code, but CERN's vision for the web makes sense in context as a research organization. It's almost like a hyper-detailed Javadoc for experiments, code, machines, and those that work with them.