BIG^(TM) : The Basic Internet Guide
A Sourcebook for Learning Web Essentials
in the School, the Home and the Office
by Andis Kaulins, J.D. Stanford University
Lecturer a.D. University of Trier, Author Langenscheidt Fachverlag
(in collaboration with Chris Loehr, Erlangen)
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004 by Andis Kaulins. All rights reserved.

PART 1
Essential Internet Knowledge

Chapter 1
The Origins of the Digital Revolution

Page 5 - The Free Internet - Use of the WWW

For more details about the historical WWW developments see "where the Web was born" at CERN as well as the URL of the World Wide Web Consortium.

Why the WWW is Free

In April, 1993, CERN's directors - who could have patented their invention - announced for the sake of free and open information exchange that WWW technology would be freely usable by anyone, with no fees being payable to CERN.

WWW use Explodes

Combined with the appearance of the first simplified graphic web browser Mosaic X, use of the World Wide Web exploded. By October 1993 there were about 200 HTTP servers and by June 1994 already 1500 servers. At this time, Tim Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium (known as the W3C). More and more computers around the world became "linked". The number of websites with the domain ending .com began to outnumber the educational and research institutions with the domain ending .edu.

By the dawn of the new millennium in the year 2000, the internet had become an integral part of the world. According to the UCLA Internet Report "Surveying the Digital Future" issued on October 25, 2000:

- more than two of every three Americans had internet access
- more than half of American users had purchased online
- nearly 1 in ever 2 Americans used e-mail every day
- nearly half of all non-users expected to access the Internet in the coming year
- internet use had become a social activity in which family members often used the internet together
- the most popular Internet activities had become surfing, e-mails, hobbies, news, entertainment info, shopping online, travel info, instant messaging, medical info, and online games

The UCLA Internet Reports of November 29, 2001 and January 29, 2003 document the rapid rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web as an everyday part of life.

For a Continuation of the Book GO TO
Page 6