This week marks the silver anniversary of the World Wide Web. It’s 25 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal to improve communications at the CERN research organisation; a proposal that would eventually lead to the creation of a browsable ‘web’.
This ‘worldwideweb’ was designed to use the internet; a connected network of computers that started in the 1960s when the US military and US-based universities began linking their internal computer systems.
A further proposal was published in November 1990, with the first web server, web browser and web pages created by the end of the year.
However, it wasn’t until 1991 that the web became available to the computer-owning general public.
To celebrate the birthday of the web, there’s a new site at webat25.org created by Tim Berners-Lee, the World Wide Web Foundation and the World Wide Web Consortium. This allows users to send birthday wishes to the web and learn about how they can shape its future.
Tim Berners-Lee said “The Web’s billions of users are what have made it great. I hope that many of them will join me today in celebrating this important milestone. I also hope this anniversary will spark a global conversation about our need to defend principles that have made the Web successful, and to unlock the Web’s untapped potential. I believe we can build a Web that truly is for everyone: one that is accessible to all, from any device, and one that empowers all of us to achieve our dignity, rights and potential as humans. Tell us about your dream for the Web with #web25.”
[Greeting from Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee on the Web's 25th anniversary]