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1989: Invention of the World Wide Web

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1989: Invention of the World Wide Web
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Oct 1, 2021 3:00 AM

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Oct 1, 2021

UTC+11

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Description

March 12, 1989 - an English scientist named Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal for what would become the World Wide Web and forever change the world. It all began with a simple question. While working for CERN, Europe’s preeminent physical research laboratory, in early stages of what would become the Large Haldron Collider, Berners-Lee pondered: “How will we ever keep track of such a large project?” His solution — laid out in a memo to his boss — was to allow documents to link to one another no matter who wrote them or which computer they were stored on. It would enable people to find information “sometimes without knowing what [they are] looking for.” Berners-Lee’s boss’s initial response: “Vague but exciting.” Exciting indeed. The moment the memo, entitled “Information Management: A Proposal,” hit his boss’s desk, it set in motion technological advancements that would bring a nearly limitless supply of information to billions of people and transform daily life in much of the world. The proposal gained momentum within CERN, and Berners-Lee spent the next two years writing the core protocols that still define the World Wide Web, and which you likely interact with daily: HTTP, HTML, and UDI (later known as URL and URI). CERN open-sourced the code in 1993, which gave rise to the consumer internet industry and the popular websites we use today. So while both the computer and internet were momentous in connecting people and information, it was arguably the World Wide Web that brought it all together to really change the world. Berners-Lee’s invention made the instantaneous sharing of large swaths of information possible for the first time ever — and, without it, you very well might not be reading this. Artwork: Brett Ferdock, Mark Amadio, and Agne Jurkenaite / CNN. 250 Total, $100 USD each.

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