Creation of the World Wide Web
1989 CE
Tim Berners-Lee proposes the information management system (WWW).
Historical Context
In the late 1980s, CERN (Geneva) suffered from incompatibility between international researchers' computers. The internet (the physical network) existed, but no universal interface linked information.
The Event
In 1989, British physicist Tim Berners-Lee proposed a hypertext system. In 1990, he developed the three pillars of the Web: URL (address), HTTP (protocol), and HTML (language), and launched the first website.
Key Figures
Tim Berners-Lee (inventor), Robert Cailliau (Belgian engineer who co-authored the proposal and assisted in development).
Aftermath
On April 30, 1993, CERN placed the Web's code into the public domain, free forever. This triggered the greatest communication revolution since the printing press.
Legacy & Culture
The Web transformed every aspect of human life: economy, politics, social relations. It is the fundamental infrastructure of globalization and the digital age.
Historiography
Technology historians celebrate CERN's altruistic decision not to patent the Web; otherwise, it would have fragmented into competing private networks, altering modern history.
Sources and References
Le code source original du navigateur NeXT (WorldWideWeb)
La déclaration de renoncement aux droits de propriété par le CERN