How It All Started

Tim Berners-Lee

W3C Tenth Anniversary

1 Dec 2004

How It All Started

Tim Berners-Lee
Director, World Wide Web Consortium

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1945: Vannevar Bush
• 1960: J.C.R Licklider
• 1962: Douglas Englebart
• 1965: Ted Nelson
• 1968: Douglas Englebart
• 1969: ARPANET
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson
• 1974: Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn
• 1978: TCP/IP

1945: Vannevar Bush article In Atlantic Monthly about a photo-electrical mechanical device called a Memex, for memory extension, which could make and follow links between documents on microfiche

W3C10 timeline graphic

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1945: Vannevar Bush
• 1960: J.C.R Licklider
• 1962: Douglas Englebart
• 1965: Ted Nelson
• 1968: Douglas Englebart
• 1969: ARPANET
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson
• 1974: Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn
• 1978: TCP/IP

1960: J.C.R. Licklider, Man Computer Symbiosis

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1945: Vannevar Bush
• 1960: J.C.R Licklider
• 1962: Douglas Englebart
• 1965: Ted Nelson
• 1968: Douglas Englebart
• 1969: ARPANET
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson
• 1974: Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn
• 1978: TCP/IP

1962: Douglas Englebart publishes "AUGMENTING HUMAN INTELLECT: A Conceptual Framework"

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1945: Vannevar Bush
• 1960: J.C.R Licklider
• 1962: Douglas Englebart
• 1965: Ted Nelson
• 1968: Douglas Englebart
• 1969: ARPANET
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson
• 1974: Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn
• 1978: TCP/IP

1965: Ted Nelson coins the term "Hypertext" in "A File Structure for the Complex, the Changing, and the Indeterminate". 20th National Conference, New York, Association for Computing Machinery

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1945: Vannevar Bush
• 1960: J.C.R Licklider
• 1962: Douglas Englebart
• 1965: Ted Nelson
• 1968: Douglas Englebart
• 1969: ARPANET
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson
• 1974: Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn
• 1978: TCP/IP

1968: Douglas Englebart demonstrates Online System (NLS).

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1945: Vannevar Bush
• 1960: J.C.R Licklider
• 1962: Douglas Englebart
• 1965: Ted Nelson
• 1968: Douglas Englebart
• 1969: ARPANET
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson
• 1974: Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn
• 1978: TCP/IP

1969: Advanced Research Projects Agency commissions ARPANET to conduct research on networking. First ARPANET nodes connected.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1945: Vannevar Bush
• 1960: J.C.R Licklider
• 1962: Douglas Englebart
• 1965: Ted Nelson
• 1968: Douglas Englebart
• 1969: ARPANET
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson
• 1974: Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn
• 1978: TCP/IP

1971: Ray Tomlinson of BBN creates email program to send messages across a distributed network.

1972: Tomlinson expands program to ARPANET users, using the "@" sign as part of the address.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1945: Vannevar Bush
• 1960: J.C.R Licklider
• 1962: Douglas Englebart
• 1965: Ted Nelson
• 1968: Douglas Englebart
• 1969: ARPANET
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson
• 1974: Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn
• 1978: TCP/IP

1974: Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn publish "A Protocol for Packet Network Interconnection", which specified in detail the design of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1945: Vannevar Bush
• 1960: J.C.R Licklider
• 1962: Douglas Englebart
• 1965: Ted Nelson
• 1968: Douglas Englebart
• 1969: ARPANET
• 1971: Ray Tomlinson
• 1974: Vint Cerf / Bob Kahn
• 1978: TCP/IP

1978: Part of TCP splits off, becoming the Internet Protocol (IP).

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1980: Tim Berners-Lee
• 1984: Paul Mockapetris

1980: While consulting for CERN, Tim Berners-Lee writes a notebook program, "Enquire-Within-Upon-Everything", which allows links to be made between arbitrary nodes.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1980: Tim Berners-Lee
• 1984: Paul Mockapetris

1984: Paul Mockapetris introduces Domain Name System (DNS).

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• 1989: Tim Berners-Lee

Mar: "Information Management: A Proposal" written by Tim Berners-Lee and circulated for comments at CERN.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• May: Info Management v2
• End: WorldWideWeb browser

May: Information Management: A proposal, version 2 published.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• May: Info Management v2
• End: WorldWideWeb browser

End 1990: Development begins for first browser (called "WorldWideWeb"), editor, server, and line-mode browser. Culminates in first Web client-server communication over Internet in December 1990.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Dec: Hypertext '91

Dec: Hypertext '91 Conference in San Antonio, Texas (USA). TBL paper on Web only accepted as poster session.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jun: Xerox
• Aug: MIT/LCS
• Dec: Web Server outside Europe

Jun: TimBL visits Xerox, hosted by Larry Masinter.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jun: Xerox
• Aug: MIT/LCS
• Dec: Web Server outside Europe

TimBL visits MIT/LCS hosted by Karen Sollins.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jun: Xerox
• Aug: MIT/LCS
• Dec: Web Server outside Europe

Dec: First Web server outside of Europe set up at Stanford University.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jan: Browser numbers
• Mar: NCSA Mosaic
• Apr: Royalty-free
• Jun: Dale Dougherty
• Nov: David Gifford

Jan: Number of browsers increasing and includes Midas, Erwise, Viola, and Samba.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jan: Browser numbers
• Mar: NCSA Mosaic
• Apr: Royalty-free
• Jun: Dale Dougherty
• Nov: David Gifford

Mar: NCSA releases first alpha version of Mosaic for X Windows.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jan: Browser numbers
• Mar: NCSA Mosaic
• Apr: Royalty-free
• Jun: Dale Dougherty
• Nov: David Gifford

Apr: CERN agrees to allow anyone to use Web protocol and code royalty-free.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jan: Browser numbers
• Mar: NCSA Mosaic
• Apr: Royalty-free
• Jun: Dale Dougherty
• Nov: David Gifford

Jun: Dale Dougherty of O'Reilly hosts WWW Wizards Workshop in Cambridge Massachusetts, USA

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jan: Browser numbers
• Mar: NCSA Mosaic
• Apr: Royalty-free
• Jun: Dale Dougherty
• Nov: David Gifford

Nov: At a Newcastle, U.K. conference, Tim Berners-Lee discusses the future of the Web with MIT's David Gifford, who suggests that Tim contact Michael Dertouzos.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Mark Andreessen
• Internet access

Mark Andreessen and colleagues leave NCSA to form Mosaic Communications Corp., which later became Netscape.

Pre-W3C Web and Internet Background

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Mark Andreessen
• Internet access

Traditional dial-up systems (CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access.

W3C

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Feb: Michael Dertouzos
• Apr: Alan Kotok
• Oct: W3C

Feb: Tim Berners-Lee meets Michael Dertouzos in Zurich to discuss possibility of starting new organization at MIT

W3C

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Feb: Michael Dertouzos
• Apr: Alan Kotok
• Oct: W3C

Apr: Alan Kotok, then at DEC, visits CERN to discuss creation of Consortium

W3C

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Feb: Michael Dertouzos
• Apr: Alan Kotok
• Oct: W3C

1 Oct: W3C created.

W3C

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Apr: INRIA
• Jun: Content Rating WS

Apr: INRIA becomes W3C Host in Europe.

W3C

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Apr: INRIA
• Jun: Content Rating WS

Jun: First W3C Workshop, on Content Rating; leads to PICS.

W3C

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jun: Peabody meeting
• Sep: Keio University

Jun: In response to "Peabody meeting" W3C forms Process ERB

W3C

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jun: Peabody meeting
• Sep: Keio University

Sep: Keio University becomes W3C Host in Asia.

W3C

• pre-1979
• pre-1989
• 1989
• 1990
• 1991
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997

• Jan: HTML 3.2

W3C publishes first W3C Recommendation for HTML — HTML 3.2.

W3C Team

W3C Team photo, November 2001, Courmettes, France.

Photo courtesy of Karl Dubost.

Next Session

The Impact on Science and Industry by Denis Lacroix (Amadeus e-Travel), Teri Richman (National Association of Convenience Stores), Moderator: Michel Cosnard (INRIA and ERCIM)

All W3C10 Sessions