by Larry Magid
The World Wide Web turns 30 this month, and you’re invited to its birthday party that will take place in Meyrin, Switzerland, London and Lagos, Nigeria over a 30-hour period starting March 12. Don’t worry about plane reservations, you can join via the web at webcast.web.cern.ch.
This is not the anniversary of the launch of the web itself, but of the publication of a paper, “Information Management: A Proposal” by Tim Berners-Lee, that laid out his vision and pointed out how a “‘web’ of notes with links (like references) between them is far more useful than a fixed hierarchical system.”
The author, now Sir Berners-Lee, paid homage to previous hypertext systems, observing that “Most of them use ‘hot spots’ in documents, such as icons, or highlighted phrases, as sensitive areas. Touching a hot spot with a mouse brings up the relevant information.”
Like most great inventions, he was building on previous products, including a program he wrote in 1980 called Enquire that seems a lot like a logical predecessor to the web. It allowed one to store snippets of information and to link related pieces together in any way.
“To find information, one progressed via the links from one sheet to another,” he wrote. He invented the web to assuage his own frustrations when he was working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). He told a recent symposium sponsored by the Washington Post, “If I’m sitting on one computer system I can’t get information from the other one. I have to log onto it separately and I have to learn a completely different program.”
Most people have never stumbled on Berners-Lee’s original paper but you have used the code he subsequently wrote a year later that remains at the core of today’s browsers. These include HTML: HyperText Markup Language, URI: Uniform Resource Identifier, mostly known as URL (Universal Resource Locator). He also created HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol that is essential to the web’s plumbing.
Big improvement over existing information systems
The web started out as hypertext when the internet had only a command driven interface and only displayed text. For me, the web became practical in 1994 after the release of what was called “Mosaic Netscape,” the first graphical browser.
By then, I was a veteran online user with more than six years experience using services like electronic bulletin boards and early online services like The Source, Compuserve, America Online and Prodigy.
But Netscape and the web created a whole new way of accessing information. For one thing, it meant not having to use separate software for each service. Although there were general-purpose communications programs, two of the most popular services, AOL and Prodigy, required their own software and Compuserve strongly encouraged users to use their application.
With Netscape, you had a single interface for all web-based services which worked together, as if they were all operated by the same company, even though they were running on separate computers run by different organizations, scattered around the world.
Shortly after Netscape (followed by Internet Explorer and numerous other browsers) became popular, we saw an explosion in websites operated not just by large companies and government agencies but by individuals.
On November 11, 1995, I registered Larrysworld.com, my personal website that I continue to operate. It was a major thrill to have my own platform. I remember thinking at the time that I’m no longer just a journalist, I’m also a publisher.
Although anyone can have a website for a few dollars a month, most people don’t, but billions of people do publish to the web using services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Berners-Lee has continued to play a very active role in the web and is the leading voice behind what is being called Contract for the Web, which is based on a set of principles for governments, companies and individuals.
It calls upon governments to “ensure everyone can connect to the internet so that anyone, no matter who they are or where they live, can participate actively online,” and to “keep all of the internet available, all of the time so that no one is denied their right to full internet access.”
Governments are also asked to “respect people’s fundamental right to privacy so everyone can use the internet freely, safely and without fear.” Companies are asked to “Make the internet affordable and accessible to everyone, respect consumers’ privacy and personal data and develop technologies that support the best in humanity and challenge the worst.
Citizens are called upon to “Be creators and collaborators on the web. … Build strong communities that respect civil discourse and human dignity,” … and “fight for the web so the web remains open and a global public resource for people everywhere, now and in the future.” In his Washington Post talk, Berners-Lee referred to this effort as a “mid-course
Agreeing on a set of principles is a good start, but we need to drill down into what it really means to be a good citizen in the internet age.
From my perspective, that includes taking personal responsibility over what you post, how you interact with others and how you secure your own devices, apps and services.
Berners-Lee is rightfully upset about fake news, but aside from holding governments and companies responsible, we must all do our part to never share information that we haven’t verified or that we don’t know to come from a reliable source. I’ve seen numerous social media postings with dubious facts and questionable links from people who should know better.
Thank you, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, for laying the groundwork for the web 30 years ago. And thanks again for creating the new Contract for the Web to help work out the bugs in what was and still is one of the greatest inventions of all time.