Happy Birthday, WWW: The Internet Turns 25 Today

Aimee Herd : Mar 12, 2014
Nick Bilton Bits-blog – NYTimes.com

"I spent a lot of time trying to make sure people could put anything on the web, that it was universal. Obviously, I had no idea that people would put literally everything on it." -Sir Tim Berners-Lee

If my daughter—turning 30 this year—thinks hard, she can likely remember a time growing up, when few people had computers and the only "web" was the icky kind that occasional spiders created in her room (which we would be quickly called in to remove). (Photo via Google)

But the internet—which turned 25 today—had already been in place for 6 months before my son was born.

This puts it in perspective for me. (CNN put together a nostalgic World Wide Web "look back" video, to view it Click Here)

But what about some anniversary thoughts from the one who actually created the World Wide Web? That would be (not Al Gore), Sir Tim Berners-Lee, from CERN.

In an interview by NY Times blogger, Nick Bilton, Tim Berners-Lee described his original idea, and how it grew exponentially.
"I spent a lot of time trying to make sure people could put anything on the web, that it was universal," Berners-Lee said. "Obviously, I had no idea that people would put literally everything on it." (Photo via NYTimes)

Indeed. Twenty-five years later, there are billions of people connected to the internet every minute, sending millions of messages, photos, and that's not to mention the commerce that has developed.

On Google's search page, Sir Tim posted a message:

Today is the web's 25th birthday. On March 12, 1989, I distributed a proposal to improve information flows: "a 'web' of notes with links between them." Though CERN, as a physics lab, couldn't justify such a general software project, my boss Mike Sendall allowed me to work on it on the side. In 1990, I wrote the first browser and editor. In 1993, after much urging, CERN declared that WWW technology would be available to all, without paying royalties, forever.

Sir Tim went on to ask questions such as:

Will we allow others to package and restrict our online experience, or will we protect the magic of the open web and the power it gives us to say, discover, and create anything? How can we build systems of checks and balances to hold the groups that can spy on the net accountable to the public? These are some of my questions—what are yours? On the 25th birthday of the web, I ask you to join in—to help us imagine and build the future standards for the web, and to press for every country to develop a digital bill of rights to advance a free and open web for everyone.

He then invited people to visit www.webat25.org or #web25 to join the discussion.