11 years prior to this a man well known in some circles, a physicist to be precise, named Tim Berners-Lee had been working on a project called Enquire, a prototype system that used the concept of hypertext to allow the sharing and updating of information among CERN’s researchers.  At this point the internet had become a haven for scientists and academics alike, and by 1989 CERN had become the largest internet node in Europe.  Berners-Lee wrote a paper entitled Information Management: A Proposal, and attempt to persuade his mangers that a global hypertext system akin to Enquire was in CERN’s interest.  It suggested the theory that a web of notes with linkable references could be placed on top of existing computer networks to facilitate remotely accessible “linked information systems.”

One year later Berners-Lee’s proposal was approved by the powers that be, thus he quickly went about coding the first web browser/editor—aptly named “world-wide-web,” as well as the first server, httpd (HyperText Transfer Protocol daemon), both of which ran on NeXT systems.  The problem, however, was that NeXT systems were far more advanced than general computing equipment available at the time, thus a much less sophisticated version of the browser software was required.

Come Spring the following year, Berners-Lee  and his colleague Robert Cailliau were already testing a universal line mode browser able to run on any machine simply by typing commands, allowing anyone with an internet connection to access the web’s information resources.  Three days after powering up Primo II with a copy of the server application, he posted an article to newsgroup alt.hypertext with a short summary of the web and how internet users could take part.  “The WWW world consists of documents and links.  Indexes are special documents that, rather than being read, may be searched.  The result of such a search is another “virtual” document containing links to the documents found.  To follow a link, a reader clicks with a mouse (or types in a number if he or she has no mouse).”  The link was born.

The web has evolved considerable since that momentous day nearly 18 years ago.  The link marked the beginning of the internet as we know it.  Three years after Berners-Lee made his history making announcement the annual growth rate of the WWW was a bit over 340,000 %!  By the turn of the century the total number of individuals with internet access exceeded 300 million.  Today statisticians estimate that number is closer to 1.5 billion.

Our parents, and grandparents witnessed many phenomenal things over their lifetimes.  Many inventions and actual revolutions in technology.  It is nevertheless amazing to think that in just over 15 short years we have gone from the birth of the internet, to now being able to have face-to-face conversations with people on the other side of the world, watch TV shows online, download music to iPods, vote, play staggeringly realistic online games with people in another country, and do any of these things anytime we like, 24-7.

However, the essence of the internet has not changed at all.  That is to say that we still “get online” for basically the same reasons as 15 years ago… to retrieve information.  One can say nonetheless, that the way we actually interact with that information, has not only dramatically changed, but evolved, considerably.

A treatment on the history of the web would be incomplete without noting the incredible effect the WWW has on commerce.  It did not take long for business, big and small to jump on the bandwagon of yet another medium for the creation of great wealth, in a relatively short time.

The dotcom boom, an era defined by soaring stock market values in the new internet sector with a surrounding aura of new economy, hit in the mid-Nineties, climaxed in 1999 and eventually burst over the following two years, wiping out five-trillion in US dollars (yes, that was ‘million’ with a ‘T’)in market value and marking the beginning of a mild but lengthy recession in the developed world.  ONly a handful of the larger dotcom businesses actually survived, the likes of ebay and Amazon among them.  It’s very interesting to note however, that both of those giants based their business venture on traditional business models.

Although still much in its infancy, the internet is starting to “mature.”  People have become used to the internet as nother instrument of lifestyle, taken for granted by the next generation born into a world where it knows no different, just as TV and radio were for most of us.

However, the explosion in popularity of blogs and wikis over the last five years are taking the web back to Berners-Lee’s original vision of a decentralized information resource.  User-generated content is feeding the next bigh growth, and simultaneously the development of technology that allows more and more creativity in or own homes.  Aspiring musicians can record their latest works and unleash them onto the world hours later at little to no cost.  Budding filmakers can publish for free on YouTube in the hope of becoming the next Scorsese, Wolf or Sorkin.

As a photographer, one who started this profession long before digital capture, let alone the internet—it still leaves me in awe that I can snap a picture with a DSLR that is wirelessly tethered to my laptop, which is in-kind wirelessly connected to the internet, where in mere moments I can then edit and send the image to a client in San Diego… and do this all from a chartered Doral Intrigue 32-footer parked a thousand-or-so feet off the Ramada Grand Caymanian Resort.

Richard Seymour

www.jargra.com