How was the Web created?

The World-Wide Web began in March 1989, when Tim Berners-Lee of the European Particle Physics Laboratory (known as CERN, a collective of European high-energy physics researchers) proposed the project to be used as a means of transporting research and ideas effectively throughout the organization. Effective communications was a goal of CERN's for many years, as its members were located in a number of countries.

The initial project proposal outlined a simple system of using networked hypertext to transmit documents and communicate among members in the high-energy physics community. There was no intention of adding sound or video, and the capability to transmit images was not considered.

By the end of 1990, the first piece of Web software was introduced on a NeXT machine. It had the capability to view and transmit hypertext documents to other people on the Internet, and came with the capability to edit hypertext documents on the screen. Demonstrations were given to CERN committees and seminars, and a demonstration was given at the Hypertext '91 conference.

Throughout 1992 Tim continued to speak on and evangelize the project, as small handfuls of developers began to volunteer their time into working on small pieces of the World-Wide Web puzzle.

Since then hundreds of people throughout the world have contributed their time writing Web software and documents or telling others about the Web. In a way never envisioned by the original project group, the project has reached global proportions. In the first four months of 1994 alone, the World-Wide Web has been mentioned by CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Fortune magazine, the New York Times, and dozens of computer publications.