12 November 1990 - World Wide Web conception

Digital Innovation Days

The idea for the world wide web officially surfaced on the 12th of November, 1990, when Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist who invented the world wide web, submitted a proposal for a hypertext project. This was termed “WorldWideWeb” (W3). At this point, Berners-Lee was working at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and this project was meant for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities and other institutes around the world. Almost three months after this proposal, he introduced the first web browser and an additional three months later, the world’s first web server went online. The world wide web had been launched.

In his proposal, Berners-Lee described his vision of providing a common and single user interface through which stored information could be accessed. To enable this, he expounded on the implementation of a simple scheme whereby several servers loaded with information and already available at CERN were to be used. The project was divided into two phases: the first phase was to use hardware and software to develop browsers for workstations from where information could be accessed; in the second phase, users could extend this application by adding their own material and information.

The idea for the world wide web was simple: merge existing and evolving technologies, data networks, and hypertext into a global information system. The impact of this concept was anything but simple. While hypertext and the internet already existed at this point, Berners-Lee found a way to link one document to another directly. This opened the internet to the general public, not just scientists anymore. Now, anyone could share information and communicate with others. With this, many new avenues sprung up: speedier instant messaging, social networking, blogging, and internet forums. In fact, it would not be wrong to term this the most significant technological breakthrough in recent history.