The World Wide Web is 20 Years Old
Twenty years ago today, on April 30, 1993, the World Wide Web went public. Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist who proposed and developed the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) upon which the whole of the Web operates, published a web page explaining what this project of the World Wide Web is and what it strives to be. The page was taken down at some point over the years, but today CERN put the page back in its original location, exactly as it appeared when it was first created.
I don’t think anyone, let alone Berners-Lee, could have possibly imagined the impact this technology would have on the whole of humanity - especially in such a short time. So much of our lives now runs on systems living on the Web, more so than any of us realize. It’s incredible to consider how different life would be without this one invention.
So here’s to an amazing first 20 years - let’s see what wonders the next 20 brings!
Update: NPR’s Planet Money blog has a great post about the legal documentation that has allowed the Web to grow and thrive unencumbered. It’s a real-life lesson in the value of open source, and what happens when you don’t let patents ruin a good thing. It may sound a bit dry, but I promise it’s interesting (and short).
