Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web - Softcover

Berners-Lee, Sir Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 006251587X ISBN 13: 9780062515872

Publisher: Harper Business, 2000

Synopsis

Named one of the greatest minds of the 20th century by Time, Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for one of that century's most important advancements: the world wide web. Now, this low-profile genius-who never personally profitted from his invention -offers a compelling protrait of his invention. He reveals the Web's origins and the creation of the now ubiquitous http and www acronyms and shares his views on such critical issues as censorship, privacy, the increasing power of softeware companies, and the need to find the ideal balance between commercial and social forces. He offers insights into the true nature of the Web, showing readers how to use it to its fullest advantage. And he presents his own plan for the Web's future, calling for the active support and participation of programmers, computer manufacturers, and social organizations to manage and maintain this valuable resource so that it can remain a powerful force for social change and an outlet for individual creativity.

About this title

Review:

Building the Internet was the collective achievement of hundreds of engineers and scientists. The intriguing thing about the World Wide Web is that, alone among Internet technologies, it was conceived and created by a single individual--the English physicist Tim Berners-Lee. He articulated the vision of a global universe of linked documents, wrote the first browser and server programs and came up with the protocols and acronynms(HTTP, URL, HTML, WWW) which are now part of all our lives.

Given the way the Web has become the dominant communications technology of our time, one could argue that Berners-Lee is the guy who invented the future. Yet up to now he has remained reticent about how he did it. Weaving the Web is therefore the definitive account of how the World Wide Web came to be. No one else could have written this book--the history of the Web straight from the source. Yet it's a characteristically modest and self-effacing book, in which Berners-Lee relegates the story of how he came to create the Web to the first 90 pages. They make riveting reading as they tell a story of ingenuity and persistence and vision; but most of all they tell a remarkable parable about civic values. The Intellectual Property Rights embodied in the Web could have made Berners-Lee the richest man in history. Yet he turned his back on the money and set his creation free. He was determined from the outset that the Web should belong not to him but to us.

The remaining 130 pages are devoted to an account of how he implemented this commitment to the public domain by setting up the World Wide Web Consortium--the organisation he created to ensure that that the Web continues to develop without becoming the proprietary reserve of the powerful corporations which aspire to control it. Through this account--of protocol wars and technical disputes and unbearable pressures--runs a consistent vision challenging the prevailing orthodoxy which regards the Web simply as a wonderful new way of doing business. Of course it is a new way of doing business--but in Berners-Lee's view that is perhaps the least interesting thing about the Web He continues to view the Web as he has always seen it--as a medium that can codify the sum total of human knowledge and understanding. Weaving the Web is an unforgettable testimony to that heroic vision. --John Naughton

Review:

"this is an important book that documents a major step in our technological history..."-- "Asian Wall Street Journal""Read how the Web was won."-- "Cincinnati Computer User""This book is a 'must read' for those who want to know what the World Wide Web 'really is: ' specifically, its history, its guiding philosophy, and its future aims ... a boon for non-technical readers." -- "Pike County Dispatch""What makes "Weaving the Web" engrossing is Berners-Lee himself: He is a man who chose to forego personal profit in order to preserve freedom and democracy on the Web." -- "San Jose Mercury News"

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Business
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 006251587X
• ISBN 13: 9780062515872
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256