The Early Days of the WWW at CERN, a personal recollection

Paolo Palazzi (CERN)
DESY auditorium, 17:00h

On 13 March 2009 we have celebrated at CERN the 20th anniversary of the birth of the idea at the origin of the World-Wide Web (WWW). The system came into existence in 1989-1990 and was further developed there until 1995. THE GOAL: connect all the scientific and technical documents related to the LHC project, both accelerator and experiments; THE SOLUTION: hypertext on the internet.
The WWW, better known as "the web," is now a very popular service on the internet, widely used well beyond its original scope. Tim Berners-Lee invented the web, and he developed it at CERN with a small team, until it grew too big and the technology was put in the public domain. The speaker has witnessed from close-by the birth of the idea and its initial development, acting as a facilitator, resource provider and enthusiastic early user.
Original documents related to this amazing adventure will be presented, together with personal recollections and lessons learned. The development of the WWW has been controversial, as it often happens with novel ideas.