SGML: The reason why and the first published hint
Charles F. Goldfarb · Journal of the American Society for Information Science · 1997
This article is a commentary—over a quarter-century after the fact—on the first published paper to suggest the need for (and hint at the existence of) what is now the Standard Generalized Markup Language. It was presented at the 33rd annual meeting of the American Society for Information Science in Philadelphia, October 15, 1970, and published in Volume 7 of the ASIS Proceedings. The editors of this Special Issue of JASIS felt that that meeting was worth remembering here because of its hitherto unpublicized connection with the origin of SGML. In addition, it is also worth remembering because of its closing banquet, which featured an erudite and witty speech by a professor with two doctorates, a 70-piece balalaika orchestra, the entire Philadelphia Mummers band (replete with banjos, saxophones, and feathered headdresses), and a middle-eastern belly dancer who worked on the table tops! I've spoken at some hundred conferences since then and none of them has even come close. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.