Do you remember those scary rumors that would circulate every few years that the government was going to start charging a penny for each email we sent? Everyone got mad until the government would affirm (again) that it was not going to charge us for sending emails. But back in the early days of the Internet some of the first web browsers were charging for each page viewed. On this day in 1993, British scientist and inventor of the World Wide Web, Timothy Berner-Lee announced that his system would be free.
To clarify a bit, the Internet and the Web are not the same thing. The Internet is a system of interconnected computer networks. It was developed in the 1960s by the Department of Defense as a way to share computer time. Al Gore is ridiculed for saying he invented the Internet. What he did, as a senator, was sponsor bills that helped make the Internet available to everyone.
The Web is basically a collection of websites stored on computers linked to every other computer on the web. When Berners-Lee (now Sir Berners-Lee) invented the Web he was working at CERN, the European nuclear physics lab. He was frustrated at how difficult it was to find information on different computers. The Internet already existed as did the technology to link them together. Berber-Lee's contribution was to marry these two technologies.
By 1994, the Web was growing like crazy and the Information Age had begun. Humankind has seen three great revolutions: the Agricultural Revolution had us growing our food rather than chasing it. We could build a home and have more babies. The Industrial Revolution freed us from reliance on muscle power. We could have nice things for our houses. And now the Information Revolution. Much as I love books, I no longer have to bring my library along when I leave home. Everything I need to know is in my back pocket.
As with any revolution, there has been pain and loss. But we're not going back. I predict that our next stage will be the Psychic Revolution. I plan to be an early adopter.
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| Supposed first photo on the WWW. "The Horrible CERN Girls." A mock doo-wop group of CERN employees. |
Good reminder of the basics. You know I have a flip phone with no internet access, I am not on Facebook, and although I own a Kindle, I rarely use it because I truly love the feel and sound of turning pages. I guess I've passed into the "elder zone"; however, I've been there since forever. I still think of the 80s when I was a hotshot on PCs that couldn't compute any faster than I could with paper and pencil, sans green eyeshade.
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