Though I think that I first heard the phrase identified as something said by Sir Edmund Hillary, a bit of investigating seems to have shown that the person who said it was actually George Mallory, whose remains were found in May of 1999. Since many people now believe that Mallory actually got to the top of Mt. Everest, perhaps it's fitting that he said it, although it doesn't really make a difference. Reportedly, when asked why it was that he wanted to climb to the peak of Mt. Everest he responded with the classic answer:
Because it's there.So much of what gets posted to the World Wide Web seems to fit into the internet corollary of that classic statement: If you're not on the web, you don't exist.