Global communication…
…global impact.
the world wide web
Jason Maslanka
world wide web
• A global, read-write information space
• Contains text documents, images,
multimedia and many other items of
information.
• Identified by Uniform Resource
Identifiers (URIs) so that each can be
found, accessed and cross-referenced
in the simplest possible way.
• Often mistakenly used as a synonym
for the Internet.
basic terms
• Hypertext: a format of information which
allows one to move from one part of a
document to another or from one
document to another.
• Resource Identifiers: unique identifiers
used to locate a particular resource on
the network.
• Client-Server Model of Computing: a
system in which client software makes
requests of server software that provides
the client with resources or services.
web browsers
• A client program called a web browser
retrieves information resources, such as web
pages and other computer files.
• One can follow hyperlinks in each page to
other resources who location is provided by
hyperlinks.
• The act of following hyperlinks is often called
“browsing” or “surfing” the Web.
web browsers
• The most used web browser is Microsoft
Internet Explorer.
• An up and coming browser is Mozilla Firefox.
• The most popular browser on the Macintosh is
Safari.
how the web works
origins
• Can be traced back as far as 1980.
• In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee published a
formal proposal for the World Wide Web.
• In 1991, a summary of the project was
posted to alt.hypertext newsgroup.
• Big breakthrough was to marry the
hypertext concept to the internet’s vast
capabilities.
• Gained critical mass with the 1993
release of the graphical Mosaic browser.
• Gopher utilized graphics and became
popular partially because of it.
sociology
• The web has allowed unprecedented global
interpersonal exchange.
• Nearly any digitized information can be
exchanged through the web: pictures, text,
music, video, etc.
• It is the most extensive medium of personal
exchange to appear on Earth.
• The Web has no preference for tolerance or
intolerance, empathy or repression.
etcetera
• The Web is available for anyone to
publish their work. There is no publisher
or media institution which controls its
content.
• Some Web browsers do not support
special characters which challenges the
notion of a true worldwide composition.
• WWW is the longest possible three-letter
acronym to pronounce in English.
• It may be the only acronym that takes
longer to pronounce than what it stands
for.
links
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World Wide Web Consortium
History of the Internet & W3
Growth of the Web and Internet Stats
The World’s First Web Server
The information in this presentation was
remediated from the World Wide Web article
on the Website “whats new media? a Wiki.”