The document summarizes the history and evolution of the World Wide Web. It describes early influences and concepts from scientists like Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson. It then outlines Tim Berners-Lee's work at CERN in the late 1980s to develop the first successful implementation of the Web including creating HTML, URIs, HTTP, and the first web browser and server. The document discusses how the Web architecture was designed to be simple, extensible and "viral" which contributed to its widespread adoption. It notes ongoing mutations and future potential areas of development for the Web including mobile access, semantic web, social media, internet of things, and more. The document concludes the Web remains a "never-ending project" with ongoing
2. Main historical steps in making the Web
some influences and streams of thought
important steps the weaving of the Web
mutations and challenges of the Web
4. Paul Otlet’s work on collecting, archiving, indexing
and categorizing documentation and his Mundaneum
he foresaw a world-wide networked environment
~ 1910
5. Vannevar Bush : “As We May Think"
the need for a machine to help follow information developments
~ 1945
Memex, Life Magazine, 10 septembre 1945
6. Vannevar Bush : “As We May Think"
the need for a machine to help follow information developments
externalizing the points and links of association…
Memex, Life Magazine, 10 septembre 1945
“the association
of thoughts, in
accordance with
some intricate
web [sic] of trails
carried by the
cells of the brain”
~ 1945
7. Vannevar Bush : “As We May Think"
the need for a machine to help follow information developments
externalizing the points and links of association…
Memex, Life Magazine, 10 septembre 1945
“the association
of thoughts, in
accordance with
some intricate
web [sic] of trails
carried by the
cells of the brain”
~ 1945
8. Ted Nelson “a file structure for complex, changing
and indeterminate information”
“hypertext” to link text documents & “hypermedia” to link media of any type :
data structures to store and connect digitally anything
Complex information processing: a file structure for the complex,
the changing and the indeterminate, T. H. Nelson, ACM, 1965
~ 1965
9. Hypertexts evolution
First generation : mainframes and largely text-based.
Second generation : more advanced user interfaces
on workstations (e.g. graphical overviews) and
multi-user support
Third generation available on PCs and in 1987:
HyperCard available for free on every Macintosh
first ACM Hypertext conference
Crossing between internet and hypertext
ex. Hyper-G [2], Microcosm [15], and of course…
1965
Xanadu overview
1980
10. Tim Berners-Lee, weaving the “mesh”
Beginning of the 80’s: “Enquire” system, arbitrary and bidirectional, multi-user
1989
11. Tim Berners-Lee, weaving the “mesh”
Beginning of the 80’s: “Enquire” system, arbitrary and bidirectional, multi-user
March of 1989: distributed hypertext system called “Mesh”
Information Management: A Proposal
Tim Berners-Lee, CERN, March 1989, May 1990
1989
13. CERN as a perfect cradle
a need for an efficient document system
largest Internet hub in Europe and
use of RPC (Remote Procedure Call)
programming approach to document writing
(e.g., LaTeX, SGML)
NeXT Cube workstation: object-based &
graphical programming, networking,
multi-window interfaces, etc.
14. Weaving the “Mesh”
link references include network addresses to weave a
“mesh” architecture integrating hypertext with TCP
and DNS
HTML simplified language for Web documents
clicking a link becomes a remote call for procedures:
making the Web less a network of documents and
more a network of procedures (now called REST)
the Web was conceptually open to writing
15. Weaving the “Mesh”
link references include network addresses to weave a
“mesh” architecture integrating hypertext with TCP
and DNS
HTML simplified language for Web documents
clicking a link becomes a remote call for procedures:
making the Web less a network of documents and
more a network of procedures (now called REST)
the Web was conceptually open to writing
first server and first browser called World Wide Web
which became the name of the whole thing
Web
16. Breaking the Thread
striking a balance between the integration of and the departure from the existing
and emerging paradigms
generality and portability of greater importance than other extensions (img)
liberate hypertext from central servers: data and links were decentralized on
the Internet
links became unidirectional and breakable
breaks needed for the scaling and virality
17. The three pillars of the Web architecture
naming and referencing
of any resource
IDENTIFICATION
UDI,
URL,
URI,
IRI
18. The three pillars of the Web architecture
naming and referencing
of any resource
resource & representation oriented
vision of the network
IDENTIFICATION
UDI,
URL,
URI,
IRI
REPRESENTATION
HTML
19. The three pillars of the Web architecture
naming and referencing
of any resource
resource & representation oriented
vision of the network
content negotiation
IDENTIFICATION
UDI,
URL,
URI,
IRI
REPRESENTATION
HTML
TRANSFER
HTTP,
ConNeg
20. The three pillars of the Web architecture
naming and referencing
of any resource
resource & representation oriented
vision of the network
content negotiation
combined in a simple & elegant
architecture that greatly
contributed to the virality
IDENTIFICATION
UDI,
URL,
URI,
IRI
REPRESENTATION
HTML
TRANSFER
HTTP,
ConNeg
21. Virality of the Web: “build small, but viral.”
priority to generality, portability, extensibility, simplicity, elegance
e.g. virally reusable by copy-paste-adapt
harnessing the network effects
e.g. systematic compatibility with other
systems
retro-compatibility as a show of
the flexibility and evolutive nature
co-conception, co-documentation,
including the Web itself
1993, CERN makes the Web open source,
free of rights, and without any fees
1994, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for normalization
23. World “Wild” Web: “born to be wild”
Many evolutions and mutations…
Mobile Access to the Web
Metadata and Linked Data on a Semantic Web
Web Programming and a Web of Applications
Social Medias and Networks on the Web
Web of Things
… cf article
24. Artifact & research object
well-known but poorly understood (eg Web vs Internet)
a software architecture vs. the object that emerged from it
both aspects exhibit complexity that calls for R&D
constantly bringing solutions, problems and needs
Web Science: the study of Web evolution and its impact
“The three W’s of the World Wide Web call for
the three M’s of a Massive Multidisciplinary Method”[16]
26. links, links, links,…
Fabien Gandon. For everything: Tim Berners-Lee, winner of the 2016 Turing award for having invented… the
Web. 1024 : Bulletin de la Société Informatique de France, Société Informatique de France, 2017, pp.21.
https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01843967v2/
Hall, W. (2011). Network Theory| The Ever Evolving Web: The Power of Networks. International Journal Of
Communication, 5, 14. Retrieved from
https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1120
Fabien Gandon and Wendy Hall. 2022. A Never-Ending Project for Humanity Called “the Web”. In
Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2022 (WWW ’22), April 25–29, 2022, Virtual Event, Lyon,
France. ACM, New York, NY, USA,8 pages.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3485447.3514195
“The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet.
The future is still so much bigger than the past.”
– Tim Berners-Lee, 2009