Il August 6th, 1991 marks a milestone in the history of technology and communication. On this day, al Cern (European Organization for Nuclear Research), computer engineer Tim Berners-Lee presented an idea destined to revolutionize the world: the World Wide Web. It was a simple information site, but it represented the beginning of a digital revolution that would transform the way we interact and open up new possibilities for global connection. Today, 33 years after its invention, we continue to explore and expand its infinite potential.
The origins of the project
The birth of the World Wide Web can be traced back to the early 80s, when Tim Berners-Lee, then a researcher at CERN, physics Laboratory of particles located at Geneva, began to conceive the idea of a system to facilitate communication between researchers. Inspiration came in part from observing the difficulties in sharing scientific information and documents among colleagues around the world.
In March 1989, Berners-Lee presented a document titled “Information Management: a Proposal” to his supervisor. This document, which was initially considered “vague but interesting,” described a project for a information management system which would become the basis of the web. The idea was to create “hypertext” that would allow users to link documents and share information across a global network.
The architecture of the web
Berners-Lee worked on this idea with the support of his Belgian colleague robert cailliau. In 1990, the two began developing a prototype that included three key components:
- html (HyperText Markup Language): a markup language for creating and structuring hypertext documents.
- Uri (Uniform Resource Identifier): a system for identifying and locating documents on the network.
- Http (HyperText Transfer Protocol): a communication protocol for transferring hypertext documents between clients and servers.
In December 1990, Cern saw the first server and browser software completed. Berners-Lee created the first web browser, known as WorldWideWeb (later renamed Nexus), and the first website, which described the design of the World Wide Web itself.
The publication of the first site
After months of work, on August 6, 1991, the first website was published at “http://info.cern.ch.” This site provided information about the www project and explained how other people could use and contribute to it new communication network. At the beginning, the site was accessible only to CERN employees and collaborators. On 23 August 1991, the first user external to CERN visited the site, marking the beginning of diffusion of the Web outside the scientific community.
The real point of turning arrived in 1993, when CERN decided to make the World Wide Web a platform open source. This allowed anyone to access and contribute to the web at no cost, encouraging rapid expansion. The creation of the first mass browser, Mosaic, by the University of Illinois, marked the beginning of an exponential diffusion: the websites, which in 1995 were already 25 thousand, reached one million in 1999 and one billion in 2014.
Difference between web and Internet
There is often confusion between websites e Internet, but they are concepts distinct. The Internet is the vast global network of computers that connect to each other using standardized protocols. It is the physical and virtual infrastructure that supports communication between devices and data transmission. The World Wide Web, on the other hand, is a service that runs on the Internet. It is a hypertextual documentation system accessible through a web browser. In other words, while the Internet is the network that connects computers, the Web is the set of pages and contents that we can navigate thanks to this network. The creation of the Web made access to information on the Internet intuitive and easily navigable, revolutionizing our interaction with the Internet.
The future of the web
Looking back, August 6, 1991 appears to be not only a date of innovation, but a starting point for continued evolution. The legacy of Tim Berners-Lee and the pioneers of the Web reminds us that, in a rapidly changing world, it is imagination and curiosity that drive progress. Today, while theartificial intelligence opens up to new horizons, we are called to reinvent our understanding and push the boundaries of innovation, just like then.
