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The Web Is 16 Today
GuNgA-DiN writes, "Today marks the 16th anniversary of the World Wide Web. According to the timeline on the W3.org site: 'The first web page [was] http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. Unfortunately CERN no longer supports the historical site. Note from this era too, the least recently modified web page we know of, last changed Tue, 13 Nov 1990 15:17:00 GMT (though the URI changed.)' A lot has happened in 16 years and this little 'baby' has grown into quite the teenager."
In 1993 on a University VAX my bet would of been Gopherspace. It had Archie and Veronica for godsake!!
GROWN ? Boy, if we are talking about the 'web', it is on the brink of ascending into supernatural dimensions, growth and 'lore' wise.
It has become a connection that binds us who are all over the world, it has become a revealer of truth that uncovers the hiddens in the doings of wrongdoers, it has become a place that chinese and canadian and namesoever teenagers come play in, it has become a place where we can find anything in, it is reshaping politics, nations, lives, even inner thoughts of people.
'It' is actually 'us'. We are the web.
Welcome to utopia being realized
Read radical news here
When you try to control use and charge for standards.
WWW is a good example of what happens when you don't.
Most of us know that distributed networking goes back to the 60's or so, with ARPAnet. In fact, according to wikipedia (I feel a slight tinge of irony looking these details up), our beloved TCP/IP began taking shape in the early 70's and ARPAnet began using TCP/IP in 1983. Meanwhile, services like Compuserve began offering private dial-up networks, and augmented them with email in 1979. Usenet popped up at the same time. The BBS's started popping up in short succession.
So all this was in place by 1990 when Tim coined the term world wide web and created the first browser, but it is the experience of browsing inter(hyper)linked files that defines most people's understanding of the internet. I suppose it's fitting to consider the start of this, if any one event, as the birth of the world wide web.
I'd really like to see a more general timeline, showing the major steps forward from the first electronic computers, first networked computers, ARPAnet, Compuserve et al, TCP/IP, DNS (did DNS already exist when CERN posted their first page?), etc...along with brief descriptions of how each came to be, and maybe some way of conveying how these technologies all converged to create the internet we have today. Most "histories" of the internet I've seen are pretty scattered and it's hard to get a grasp of how things really came together. The wikipedia article, for example, barely discusses DNS and the sections aren't really tied together into a "big picture" of the internet.
I think you are correct in saying that "We are the web". It is true. The web is a reflection of humanity. In represents mankind, warts and all.
However, because of that I wouldn't want to call the web a utopia. It is a communications mechanism, but it can't fix our flaws, it reveals them.
I think Gopher is too new. Remember the original Kermit?
now those were the days... or PACX ?
now I really feel old. thanks!
PS - I *own* the computer that forged the final connection to make the internet complete!
the same system that email was first developed on.
Actually, I'd say the that the fact itself is notable is a tribute to the transitory nature of the Web. Nobody's surprised when they can read a 250 year old text.
Send lawyers, guns, and money!