20 Years Ago Today: The Web Was Proposed http://tinyurl.com/25hp2k6
Only 20 years! That is, sadly, not even close to half my life ago! I joined in May 1995 with my first ISP account, with our first website following not long after. I’d heard from the (short lived) Sydney Media 100 User Group that there was an email list for Media 100 users, and that’s why I purchased a modem and got an account with an ISP.
Think how 1990 was. No Google, Amazon, YouTuvbe, Facebook, online banking, online shopping, research, wikipedia, etc, etc, etc. I can’t imagine the massive loss of productivity that losing the Internet would mean.
Here’s Tim Berners-Lee proposed the web:
HyperText is a way to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will. It provides a single user-interface to large classes of information (reports, notes, data-bases, computer documentation and on-line help). We propose a simple scheme incorporating servers already available at CERN.Â
The project has two phases: firstly we make use of existing software and hardware as well as implementing simple browsers for the user’s workstations, based on an analysis of the requirements for information access needs by experiments. Secondly, we extend the application area by also allowing the users to add new material.Â
Phase one should take 3 months with the full manpower complement, phase two a further 3 months, but this phase is more open-ended, and a review of needs and wishes will be incorporated into it.