Traite de documentation : le livre sur le livre, theeorie et pratique was the blueprint of today’s internet. Written by the French-speaking Belgian author Paul Otlet (1868-1944).
In 1934, Otlet laid out this vision of the computer and internet, he wrote about radio and television as other forms of conveying information, writing in Traité de documentation that "one after another, marvelous inventions have immensely extended the possibilities of documentation." In the same book, he predicted that media that would convey feel, taste and smell would also eventually be invented, and that an ideal information-conveyance system should be able to handle all of what he called "sense-perception documents".
Otlet also had other interests and ambitions that he shared with Henri La Fontaine. They were both idealists, peace activists and internationalists. Their lobby work pushing internationalist political ideas were embodied in the League of Nations and its International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation (forerunner of UNESCO).