What were you doing
ten year ago today? Whatever it was, it's a good bet that surfing
the Web wasn't part of it. That's because the Web didn't really
have its public debut until October 17, 1994-just ten years ago
this week.
That day a company called Spry introduced a product called "Internet
in a Box." For the first time, you could trot down to a store,
buy a software package, take it home and have everything you needed
to connect to the Internet and the World Wide Web.
Spry later became a part of CompuServe, one of the first of the
online services. It was the biggest of them in 1994. Then CompuServe
was acquired by America Online (AOL) which then merged with and
was devoured by Time Warner.
When AOL and Time Warner merged, we were told that AOL was the
bigger of the two. Of course that was only if you were looking
at capitalization in an irrational market, which may tell you
everything to you need to know about the Dot Com Bubble.
In 1994 were less than 10 million Internet users worldwide. Today
there are more than half a billion. Mosaic, the browser you got
in the box was part of the reason for that growth.
Mosaic was the first browser that looked like the browser you
use today, only without some of the bells and whistles. It made
it easy for folks use the Web and the Web made it easy for people
to use the Net.
Mosaic was what I call a Blasting Cap Technology, one that is
relatively low impact itself, but which sets off a chain reaction
of other technologies. The Net was already there, and cleared
for commercial use. Hypertext linking had already been invented.
Computers were already in many homes and businesses. And they
all exploded into popularity.
Hardly anyone saw it coming. I sure didn't.
Just about a year before Internet in a Box, the Wall Street Journal
got a bunch of us together to ask what we thought the "killer
app" for the Net would be. A "killer app" was an application,
use, or program that was so compelling that folks buy a new technology
just to use it.
Word processing and spreadsheet programs were killer apps for
personal computers. Folks bought computers to get to use them.
The Journal wanted to know what we thought would make the Net
popular.
Mosaic was already invented, but no one on our panel mentioned
it. We either suggested other applications, or described some
mystical, ideal app. Looking back now, I realize that I should
have known what was coming.
A couple of weeks before, a friend of mine had called me up all
excited. He'd just downloaded a copy of this great graphical browser,
Mosaic. It was free. It changed the entire experience of using
the Net. He said I should try it.
Mosaic was invented at the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
I went to their site and downloaded a free copy.
That sounds easier than it was. It took me three or four tries
to get it all done right. Then I had to install Mosaic.
Installation took the better part of a weekend. But it was worth
it.
I was so excited that I told several friends about Mosaic. But
I never made the connection between my excitement and "killer
app" when the Journal came calling.
One of the fellows who invented Mosaic at Illinois was Marc Andreesen.
He went on to help found Netscape. Their initial public offering
was the first of the great Dot-Com Bubble.
Netscape was later acquired by AOL, and you know what happened
to them. Marc Andreesen hung around AOL for a while and then started
another company. Meanwhile the rest of us slowly integrated the
Web into our lives.
Today you probably use the Web. Most Americans do. You could
probably do without it, but it would make things uncomfortable.
While all those companies were going public, buying each other
and being bought, we've started doing lots of little, daily-life
things on the Net. We send and receive email. We check the news
and sports scores and the weather. We get driving directions,
make reservations, sell our old stuff and buy new books.
It's a different world now. And it all started the day the Web
went public, just ten years ago.
Top of page
Here are some
resources on the development of the Web.
Start with Weaving
the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World
Wide Web. It is Tim Berners-Lee's own story about how it all
happened and what he did. It's also probably an accurate view
of who he is. Besides the clearly explained processes and history
covered by this book you also get the impression that Berners-Lee
is very smart, very gentlemanly, very thoughtful and very, very
quiet. Passion does not leap off the page, but lots of ideas and
history do.
Where
Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet by Katie
Hafner is an excellent, non-technical history of the Web.
Probably the most fun way to get an idea of what the Web has
been like during its brief history is to visit Deja
Vu, a site devoted to "the web as we remember it."
You'll find a little
history of the World Wide Web on the site for the World Wide Web
Consortium.
The World Wide
Web History Project has a wealth of documents, timelines and
more.
For insight into the early development of what became the personal
computer industry and the Digital Age, pick up Dealers
of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age
by Michael A. Hiltzik. This book is about the development of ideas
and about how and why great ideas don't turn out to be commercial
successes. The book tells the story of the research facility that
Xerox set up, officially called the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
and known as Xerox PARC. It's also about how Xerox did and didn't
profit from this incredible institution that can claim to have
invented the first personal computer, the windows-style graphical
interface, the laser printer and much more.
12 October 2004
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