By ‘Sola Fagorusi
Depending on whom you ask, the Library of Congress with address at number101 Independence Avenue, Washington DC, United States is the largest or second largest library in the world. Any mortal with a showy goal to read all the books in that library would need 60,000 years to achieve that feat at the rate of one book per day. This presumably includes reading the Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed in the West in the 1450s. On the other end of this is the World Wide Web (WWW) which reportedly would take 57,000 years to complete reading, if one is to read content on it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And of course, this is minus private blogs, Facebook updates and tweets by various individuals. It points at the speed at which the World Wide Web has achieved almost the same level of success, content wise, as hardcopy books that used to be the singular norm some two and half decades ago.
It is not uncommon to have people see and use the phrase?World Wide Web and the Internet as synonyms even though they are not. Last week, precisely on March 12, the 25th year anniversary of the World Wide Web was commemorated. Erroneously, many assumed it was that of the internet. Sir Tim Berners-Lee Ph.d, British Physicist, who is regarded at the inventor of the World Wide Web, had written an information management proposal detailing what is today known as the Web. It was then seen as a series of hypertext documents meant to be viewed by browsers, and one in which authorship will become universal. The first website, with homepage of 165 words, which is now accessible here did not become public until August 6, 1991. There are presently about 921 million websites online according to internetlivestats.com with an astronomical rise starting from 2012 till date and an average of four users per website. It is anticipated that before the end of 2014, the figure will cross the one billion mark.
The World Wide Web, which is the name of the first browser, is different from the Internet. While the internet is a global network of millions of computers, the web also called WWW is one of the services that can be harnessed to connect and access documents and other files on the internet and it eventually delivers data in form of home pages. What we today call the Web had other names that were being considered before the final choice – WWW was made in 1990 by Tim following the hitherto use of Mesh. These names include – TIM (The Information Mine), Information Mesh and Mine of Information (Moi). It should also be mentioned that it was on a NeXT computer invented by the late Steve Jobs that Tim first set up the World Wide Web.
The existence of the web has change the way we live and work. By 1993, the introduction of Mosaic, the browser that made the web popular and eventually became the foundation for Netscape in 1994 changed the whole landscape of the World Wide Web. Unlike the WWW, the history of the internet is more popular from its start in the 1960’s following experimentation on how the US military could keep communication alive in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. Called ARPAnet, it was later made available to the civilian population.
It is the intellectual miracle of the World Wide Web aided by the Internet that has given us the scientific marvel of social media today. It is impossible to ascribe ownership of the World Wide Web or the Internet to anyone. It is free because browsers are free and that is why it has been able to throw up (social) entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos of amazon.com, Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, Omoyele Sowore of saharareporters.com, Jack Dorsey of twitter.com, Arianna Huffington of Huffington Post, Tunde Kehinde of Jumia, Seth Akumani of ClaimSync and hundreds of others growing within and outside the continent.
It is partly to Tim’s credit that there is no form of centralised control for the World Wide Web till date. No one needs permission to create any product on the World Wide Web. But that is now being threatened with several shadows being cast over users of this publicly created and used public space by governments in the name of surveillance. The 25th anniversary of the web should deepen discussions around sustaining the principles that have made the web free and unrestricted.
The responsibility of the continuous development of the Web still partly rests on the now old shoulder of Tim who is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The future of this creation of his is unpredictable given the pace of change. Tim’s message on WWW literacy for all rings urgency ? “…we can build a Web that truly is for everyone: one that is accessible to all, from any device, and one that empowers all of us to achieve our dignity, rights and potential as humans.” The sustained rejection of attempts of surveillance is what can keep this fine invention of man unlimitedly beneficial to all as the population of users increase. Defending our rights to limitlessly use the web, nevertheless the dark dangers lurking in cyberspace, is the major responsibility that comes with our right as I dearly wish (everyone, like Tim likes to say) the burgeoning community of web users a dignifying 25th anniversary.
Edward Snowden’s position on this also carries weight – Any system of surveillance and illegal spying threatens civil liberties and should not be done without a proper review of the law by the people the law seeks to protect. The black NeXT computer Tim created the WWW from in Switzerland has a partly ruined white sticker to it saying – “This machine is a server: DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!” This is the single message all governments must take to heart. The World Wide Web must never by way of surveillance be powered down.
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@SolaFagro
