Today, 12th March marks the 30 years anniversary of the World Wide Web. Now we cannot imagine the internet without the world wide web as if it already became a basic necessity.
30 years ago, on this very day, Sir Tim Berners-Lee published a proposal to CERN containing his envision for starting a global hypertext system initially titled as “MESH”. This hypertext system initially suited itself to today’s World Wide Web. The original published proposal by Sir Tim can still be found today with respect to history.
For a basic reminder let us just not confuse the Internet and World Wide Web. The Internet is a vast network composed to sub-networks, which means several computers connected and able to transmit data between them. On the other hand, World Wide Web is the hyperlinks, Urls or the interconnected pages that are accessible on the internet.
Sir Tim started developing the Web while he was working at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 1989, where he intended to share data inside the organization. Initially the proposal did not attract much appreciation but was encouraged by his boss. He then went on to make the first web browser which was also called the world wide web. A simulation of the browser is still to be found and you can try it.
Watch the direct celebration from CERN:
But, on World Wide Web’s 30th birthday Sir Tim Berners-Lee got his head full of concerns for the future the World Wide Web. Now almost half the world population is online. Sir Tim is proud of this but is concerned about how much we still have to go. He stated important factors such as scam, hacking, data and identity theft, breach of private data, spreading hatred and much more.
Sir Berners-Lee outlined three sources of dysfunction affecting today’s web:
1. Deliberate, malicious intent: hacking, criminal behavior and online harassment.
2. System design that creates perverse incentives: misinformation, scam, clickbait, etc.
3. Unintended negative consequences: effects of online disclosure.
Sir Tim talked about how some selected blogs are being dominant, he talked about the fake news and hoax being circulated. He also talked about some coming upcoming technological wonders we are about to see, big corporate agendas, different platforms and much more.
The 30th year celebration of founding the world wide web was more of a review of sustainable, safe and secure use of web space by the founder itself. It was a proud moment for him, for you and for all its users. He says if we do not start to build a better web now, then the web would not have failed us, but we would have failed the web.