In the English-language world, when you mention the World Wide Web, names like Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson come to mind. But what if the real credit should go to a Belgian visionary named Paul Otlet?
Check out The Web Time Forgot, in the New York Times.
"In 1934," Alex Wright reports, "Otlet sketched out plans for a global network of computers 
(or ‘electric telescopes,’ as he called them) that would allow people to search and browse through millions of interlinked documents, images, audio and video files. He described how people would use the devices to send messages to one another, share files and even congregate in online social networks. He called the whole thing a ‘reseau,’ which might be translated as ‘network’ or arguably, ‘web.’" Photo shows "the telegraph room" associated with his system.
It’s not as if the world has completely forgotten Otlet, and in fact, his Wikipedia entry describes him as "the founding father of documentation, the field of study now more commonly referred to as information science." But should he getting more credit in a Web context? Hello, Garson? Got any thoughts here as a comp-sci guy?
