Re: The official WWW Hand Gesture

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Date: Fri, 7 May 93 09:35:26 +0100
From: Tim Berners-Lee <timbl@www3.cern.ch>
Message-id: <9305070835.AA18793@www3.cern.ch>
To: Cynthia Clark <cclark@cnri.reston.va.us>, mitra@pandora.sf.ca.us,
        clw@merit.edu
Subject: Re: The official WWW Hand Gesture
Cc: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch, wdueber@cs.indiana.edu, tloos@cs.indiana.edu
Reply-To: timbl@nxoc01.cern.ch

> From: Marc VanHeyningen <mvanheyn@cs.indiana.edu>
> To: ww-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
> Date: Thu, 06 May 1993 12:02:29 -0500
> 

> Discovered by accident earlier today....
> 

> Hold your hand (the right one works best) up, and curl your pinky
> down.  Three fingers are now sticking up.
> 

> Spread them apart (if you keep them together, you look like a Boy  
Scout.)
> 

> Now, it makes the letter "W" stand out reasonably clearly.  Plus,
> you're sticking up 3 fingers, so it represents the number 3.  So  
it's
> a W!  It's a 3!  It's W3!  What more could anybody possibly ask for  
in
> an official WWW hand gesture?
> 

> Someobdy needs to develop a secret WWW handshake based on this.
> 

> - Marc

	This reminds me of the IETF meeting (resaurant BOF) at
	which the official sign language sign for "Internet" was
	constructed.  It was based on the "I" sign  (little finger
	of main hand only up?) and included suggestions of "wire"
	(two little fingers meeting in the middle tip to tip
	in a straight line?) and "friend" (two little fingers
	linked). It was something like little fingers tip to tip
	rotated back and forth one against the other.
	I may have got this all wrong -- Cynthia you
	can correct me.  I don't know whether it made it to RFC
	status yet.
	
	As for WorldWideWeb,  it sounds like it matches similar
	criteria.  It is based on W (middle three fingers only
	up, palm away from you). I don't know what "3" is.
	(Three fingers together?)
	Maybe to distinguish "WorldWideWeb" from "W" it has to be
	be modified a bit -- perhaps the three fingers of one
	hand (W) meeting the three fingers of the other hand (3)
	reminicent of Internet, connection, wire.  If something
	suggesting "knowlegde" and/or sharing could be snuck in
	there then that would be all the better. Is the sign for
	"W" backwards (palm toward you) already taken?
	
	Cynthia: WWW is an information-sharing system for the
	Internet, in case you haven't come across it (which I hope
	you will, as I'd like to see all the Internet Drafts and RFCs
	available on it.)
	
	Tim Berners-Lee