Today, November 12, 2008, is the 18th anniversary of the original proposal for the World Wide Web. Submitted on November 12, 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, it reads like a very modest proposal for a small project. It goes without saying its impact on the world, let alone CERN.

This makes the Web “legal” in the US. It can vote and enter into a contract. And it’s only 3 years away from its first legal alcoholic drink.

Thinking back to where I was that day, I was most likely working on an IBM mainframe consulting assignment in Providence, Rhode Island. It would be another 6 years until I was developing Web sites commercially.

If the Web means anything to you, especially for those of us who make our living off of it, it is worthy of a quick read. There are a few things in it that will make you smile, and a few things that will make you think, think about the vision back then and how it has played out in less than 2 decades from its original presentation.

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Comments

Excellent read; bright guys wrote this.  It’s always fun to see how brillant ideas came from solving burning needs.  And it also shows that publicly funded research actually comes up with stuff useful to the greater number. 
Let’s see if CERN can do it again with their new expensive gadget.

Comment by Hugues
on 11/12/08 at 11:30 AM
 

love the proposal - amazing how short and simple it was in the proposal, knowing how profound and life changing it became..!

Comment by Amy
on 11/12/08 at 04:55 PM
 

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