The World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee gives his invention away for free
See it on the timeline →In depth
The web is three simple ideas: URLs that address resources, HTTP that fetches them, and HTML that describes them. CERN placed the specification in the public domain in 1993, with no patents and no licence fee — probably the single decision that mattered most for the shape of the internet. Within ten years the web had transformed commerce, media, politics and everyday life. Over the last twenty it has also become heavily centralised around a few platforms, contrary to the original design.
For children
At the CERN research centre in Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee built a system where documents could point to each other with links. He gave the invention away to the world for free. Without that decision the web would look very different.
Connects to
Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org