Readings and Questions

Wikipedia's entry on Berners-Lee provides basic facts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee

Also, the entry on the History of the World Wide Web provides further important historical details. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web

Read this FAQ on the history of the Web. It will nail down what the Wikipedia articles didn't. http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/history/index.html

Check out the Time magazine profile of Berners-Lee as one of the "scientists who changed the world." http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/bernerslee.html

The BBC interviewed Berners-Lee in 2004: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4132752.stm

This key speech by Tim Berners-Lee is called: The World Wide Web: Past, Present and Future:
http://www.w3.org/2002/04/Japan/Lecture.html

Technology Review interviewed Berners-Lee on "the semantic web," which is his next project. It's an attempt to improve on the World Wide Web. http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/13784/?a=f

Finally, read his testimony to the US Congress on the future of the Web (2007) http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2007/03/01-ushouse-future-of-the-web.html

What is the difference between the Web and the Internet?
What were Timothy Berners-Lee's reasons for wanting to invent the Web? What was he originally trying to do? Or to put it another way, what was the problem he was trying to solve?
Time magazine said: "He took a powerful communications system that only the elite could use and turned it into a mass medium." What "system" is Time talking about and why was it that only an elite could use it?
What is hypertext?
Who were the first users of the Web and what did they do with it?
The Wikipedia entry on history of the Web says: "In April [1994] CERN had agreed that anyone could use the Web protocol and code royalty-free." What does this mean and why was it important?
What was Netscape? What does a Web browser actually do and why is it important?
What does "hypertext" mean and why is it important? What does "url" stand for, what does it mean and why is it important?
What is a "web server," how does it work, and why is it important?
What does Berners-Lee mean by "device independence" (in his Japan lecture) and why is that important?
What does Berners-Lee mean by "software independence" (same lecture) and why is it important? What is the World Wide Web Consortium, what does it do, and why does it matter?
Berners-Lee says in his testimony to Congress that the Web "stands in contrast to more closed systems such as the broadcast or cable television networks." What is a "closed" about the broadcast and cable systems?
Berners-Lee also says, "The Web, and everything which happens on it, rest on two things: technological protocols, and social conventions." What does he mean by social conventions and why does that matter?
What is the semantic web?