Information Technologies for Diplomatic Activities by Stefano Baldi

What is the Internet

Brief History

• How it all started
• The World Wide Web (WWW)

How it all started

It is now generally recognised that the forerunner of Internet was Arpanet which was the first network able to connect a series of computers situated in different places of the United States to allow the users of ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) research fund, the agency for advanced projects of the American Defence Department, to communicate with one another.

Internet has developed enormously since 1993 when some researchers at CERN In 1989, the CERN scientists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau began proposing a system based on hypertext, which is a way of linking the information contained in different computers. In 1990 the first browser came out, a programme which allowed access to different computers only through the use of a mouse. In 1993 the first browser on a commercial scale was produced (Mosaic) which allowed the visualisation of coloured pictures. finalised the World Wide Web (WWW) It is a very easy system to use (user friendly) when looking for available information on the Net. The WWW was created to facilitate the exchange of information on studies that CERN scientists were carrying out with University laboratories and research centres scattered across the five continents.

The World Wide Web (WWW)

1989 - Conception

1990 - "WorldWideWeb" browser/editor, server

1991 - Justification

1992 - Persuasion

1993 - Proliferation

1994 - Consortium

1996,7 - PNG, PICS, HTTP 1.1, HTML 3.2, 4.0, CSS,

1998,9 - XML, RDF, P3P, CSS2, IPR?, HTTP-NG, ...

by Tim Berners-Lee