Reactions to
Weaving the Web
by Tim Berners-Lee

Chapters 1 through 7: History

The cover of the book introduces Tim Berners-Lee the "Inventor" of the World Wide Web. People today (myself included) surf the web so mindlessly that the thought of it's inventor isn't important. But the story of the WWW in Weaving the Web has helped me appreciate this ingenious tool that can just about be called a 'necessity' in my life. Although the first few chapters seem kinda of boring and historical, they are integral for understanding how things came about and for giving credit where credit is deserved.

In my opinion, I don't think Berners-Lee should be given the distinction of "inventing" the Web. Inventing is a powerful word. We must remember that the grand idea of the WWW didn't pop up overnight. Technologies such as hypertext, email, and even the internet were invented years before Tim's ideas ever began to flourish. Also, look at all the help Tim had along the way! Of course, the WWW would be not be in existence without the help of Doug Engelbart, Robert Cailliau, Nicola Pellow, and the list goes on and on. Also, some of Tim's projects were CERN funded, so they must be given recognition also. What it boils down to is that Tim may have had ideas and brought them into action to create the WWW, he had quite a few people and corporations helping him out.

My second realization while reading the text was "Who controls the Web, anyway?". This is also something that I had never thought about before. The WWW proves to be commercial for many things (just think of all those ".com websites"--- somehow, someone is making a buck or two behind that site!), but there is no ruler of the internet. This can be both good and bad. It is good in the sense that it gives us all the freedom of speech and a free flow of information to (hopefully!) educate us all, in one way or another. However, too much freedom is a bad thing. Will the web become overcommercialized some day?? Berners-Lee thinks so, and so do I. Sooner than we think, just about all websites will be more concerned about making a profit than the actual sharing of information, which was the purpose of the WWW in the first place

In all its various guises, the Web is already so much a part of our lives that familiarity has clouded our perception of the Web itself.

 

Millions of people surf the Internet each day, yet most of them really have no idea what they are actually doing! Furthermore, I'm guessing that that the majority of Internet users don't care to know the technical details. But in order for us to get as much out of our Web experiences as possible, it is important to know how the Web came to be, and what it was designed to do best.

 

Even though I didn't use the Web until 10th grade, I feel as if I've grown up with it. My younger sister, who is now 13, designed and uploaded her own webpage about Pez when she was 9. Familiarity with the Web has definitely clouded my perception of it (until now, hopefully!), and I've forgotten how recent an invention the Web is! Berners-Lee mentions that mainstream Web access through browsers designed for PCs and Macs occurred around 1992...only 8 years ago! It is amazing to me how much the Web has really taken off since then. I wonder how Berners-Lee envisioned the Web in the new millenium back in 1992, but perhaps he'll discuss that later in the book.

 

For him, the notion of connections was an integral one, and the Web today still emphasizes connections of all kinds. We have the power to connect with other people, to other places, and to other sources of knowledge. In addition, we can now connect with merchants and make all sorts of purchases online.

 

Berners-Lee also discusses the importance of the HTML editor and why he pushed for its inclusion into the Web package. He didn't want the Web to be solely for publication. Instead, Berners-Lee envisioned it as a collaborative medium where an ongoing dialogue might take place between =people from all over the world. Today, the Web is used for both publication and collaboration. However, in recent months, it seems like most talk about the Web has involved commerce, or e-commerce. I hope that Berners-Lee addresses his personal views on this elsewhere in the book. It seems to me that widespread e-commerce might detract from the purity of his original vision of the Web. However, it has done wonders for the economy. And Tech stocks are what's hot on Wall Street!

 

One thing that interests me is how the popularity of the Web is affecting, and even replacing, certain other, more traditional ways that we communicate with one another. Now that most members of my family each have his or her own email addresses, I speak with them over the phone a lot less. I'm saving a decent amount in postage by emailing electronic greeting cards to friends as opposed to mailing out cards. I've almost completely stopped writing hand-written letters, as email has become my primary form of keeping in touch. The convenience of it is great, but email can also be incredibly impersonal and ambiguous. And I miss receiving actual snail-mail sometimes!

 

I'm truly amazed by Berners-Lee's story. Something that began as a small program that he toyed with in his spare time called Enquire has virtually taken over our culture. Berners-Lee couldn't have possibly anticipated all of the technological, ethical, legal, sociological, and artistic issues that are now being discussed as a result of it. As I said earlier, I hope he talks about his own views about what the Web has become in forthcoming chapters.

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Hilary Chamberlain

I am really interested in Tim Berners-Lee's perspective. It's neat to see just what was going on in his brain. I did notice that he's very optimistic, and I guess the word would be idealistic?

 

But I don't really know if that's the word i am looking for. He sees the web as this utopian, wonderful space, and I think that's just peachy, but it's not a very practical way to look at things. If you put anything out for people to use, of course there are the types that will abuse it. There will also be such a large quantity of objectionable material that the uptight people will always want to regulate.

 

However, I think that his view helped him construct the web to make it the very best it could be, with free access and infinite possiblities. I like how he shows the links between his work and ideas and what others did before him.... giving credit to those who had a vision but couldn't quite make it work. It also makes you realize that the way he set up the web is a web in itself, if that makes any sense. He made links between different people, their concepts and programs, and meshed it all together in a tangle, like a web.

 

On a totally unrelated point, his wife must be real cool, because it sounds like he spends a whole bunch of time at the office. One complaint, and it's also very general; I find it hard to follow all the technical descriptions, even though it seems to be broken down into little, bite sized bits of information

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Chatherine Chen

When I read about how other men had come up with concepts similar to what eventually became Berners-Lee's "Web", it reminded me of Darwin's Theory of Evolution and his "Origin of the Species". Some other man (whose name I can't quite remember) had been developing a theory similar Darwin's idea, but because Darwin collected better evidence and got himself published, he received all the credit. I'm not disputing that Berners-Lee deserves credit for being the creator of the web- I'm just glad that he was able to piece everything together before anyone else did. I also noticed that Berners-Lee makes use of the words "evolution" and "evolve," and I'm suggesting that the Web will approach having as profoud an impact as Darwin's Theory of Evolution on the way we live and think.

 

I was amused and amazed by the statement that "a computer was stilll a sort of shrine to which scientists and engineers made pilgramage. Most people at CERN did not have computer terminals in their offices" (8). The computer as a place of worship is an interesting image but not unbelievable; in fact, it's far too believable. I love Guild and the many computers it has to offer. It's one of my favorite things about Bryn Mawr.

 

In Chapter 6, when Berners-Lee talks about Erwise, Viola, Midas, and Samba, I was thinking to myself that I'd never heard of any of things before and wondering why not. I was very relieved to finally recognize Netscape, formerly Mosaic.

 

On page 83, Berners-Lee mentions that he considered opening a small company and calling it "Websoft." Why is it that technology-related companies choose names with "soft" in them, for example, Microsoft and Softbank? Where does that come from? The names of the browsers listed above are also very interesting to me, "Midas" and "Viola" in particular. I was also intrigued by "Xanadu" and the man who'd created it. Berners-Lee spends a lot of time talking about names;for example, change from URI to URL, HTTP, World Wide Web, etc. It's interesting to read about the the naming processes.

 

I was surprised to learn that the creator of the web was English and had created the Web in Switzerland before moving to America, as I was under the impression that the pervasiveness of the Web is largely an American phenomenon; in other words, that it was the bigger in the US than it is in other countries. "It was clear that MIT was very much in control, moving faster, with more expereience and relevant contacts. Some people in Europe expressed concern that Web technology would move west, leaving Europe behind" (88-89). I believe that this has happened.

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Sarah Crown

After reading the first seven chapters of Weaving the Web, the most interesting idea which the author presents is that he created the web as a way for people to make connections between anything. Berners-Lee equates the connections to the way that the human mind functions; many times people make correlations between two subjects that someone else may not necessarily connect. For instance, one might enter a room that has a certain smell and this smell could remind them of a previous instance in their life. I had always realized that the web was a means of finding information and exploring different areas, but I had never thought of the web as a physical representation of the way the human mind works. As he states:

Computers might not find the solutions to our problems, but they would be able to do the bulk of the legwork required, assiting our human minds in intuitively finding ways through the maze.

 

 

Another point which Brenners-Lee addresses is the amount of apathy toward the web by many of his colleagues during its creation. At almost every point, despite the fact that the web would present many new opportunities and provide many useful functions, he had a difficult time convincing others of the web's benefits. Quite possibly the reason I was so surprised is due the fact that the web is such an integral part of today's society; many businesses, corporations, schools, and other institutions rely on the web for advertisement, sales, and convience for their customers or their audience. I realize that the web is very recent invention, but I would have thought that when the web was first being developed that people would have immediately turned their attention toward the project and its creation.

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Huong Dang

Is has occurred to me that innovative ideas like Tim's emerge everyday. He commented that : "Inventing the World Wide Web involved my growing realization that there was a power in arranging ideas in an unconstrained, weblike way" was too abstract and took several years to fall through.(3) I think it too long for brilliant minds from CERN to accept Tim's ideas because there wasn't a real need for it, meaning the use of the Internet and hypertext was practical. Hence, people saw no need for development. However, Tim observed the workings of the mind and alluded it to the future of the computer world - "the Internet...could provide a bridge between different computer operating systems and netwroks." (19)

 

It is tough for one to separate oneself and objectively observe what is being used, i.e. the Internet. Tim saw the plebian stage of computers ("computers were connected using dedicated cables from one to another" (17)) and grasped the future of computers ( where it would be able to "organize structures all the time, but can also break them and make intuitive leaps across the boundaries - those coveted random associations" (10)). Tim understood the shortcomings of incompatable computers ("Incompatibility between computers had always been a huge pain in everyone's side...The computers simply could not communicate with each other. The Web's existence would mark the end of an era of frustration" (35)) and sought to make a medium where the sky was the limit for intercommunication across the globe.

 

Another point I would like to mention: the idea of the World Wide Web. I never really understood the concept of the Net - who controlled it? where were the headquarters? and whatnot. But Tim answered them all : "There was no central computer 'controlling' the Web, no single network on which these protocols worked, not even an organization anywhere that 'ran' the Web. The Web was not a physical 'thing' that existed in a certain 'place.' It was a 'space' in which information could exist."(36)

 

To think the Web is out there - a connective whole of millions of computers all around the world. It's a complicated idea - a 'space' where information could exist is like a line from a SciFi novel. Consequently, it may explain why it tool so long for the idea to get support.

 

As human nature percedes : the immediate reaction to a profitable idea as the net grew, men sought to make profit, commercializing the Net. An example was Univ. of Minnesota's gopher. The resolution for a consortium was a sucess and triumph of the human spirit to control the invisible hand of a capitalistic America.

 

Then there was the tidbit of Tim's decision to capitalize the Web, but due to his passion to see the Web evolve ten fold - the Consortium beckoned. Tim: "My decision not to turn the Web into my own commercial venture was not any great act of altruism or disdain for money, of which I would later be accused." (85)

 

Although Tim does not think his decision was based on altruistic motives, his reasons were pure from the beginning - having the web free and open to the world ("How can the Web be your's.")

 

It was a thoughtful read.

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Beth Fedornak

Several things surprised me about the invention of the web. One of them was how long (since 1980) Tim had been working on the idea of the web. The other was the fact that he was working on a project that his employer could have told him to stop working on at any time. I wonder what they thought he was doing all that time!! However, his dedication and persistence to the cause was amazing. I also found the grassroots' approach interesting. Having been involved in several grassroots efforts I was glad to know that the outside world cared enough about the project to take the time to work on it, send in their ideas and promote the idea of the web.

 

Even though it was Tim's initial idea I feel additional credit should be given to all the others that helped along the way. For instance Tim's use of other computer software as a basic computer program, the volunteers at the office that helped and the other creators of servers is what really helped the web develop into what it is today.

 

I found it interesting that other web services where also being developed also at the time. In my ignorance I just thought that on day the web appeared and we all started using it. I never realized how long or how much time it took to create it. It was somewhat sad to know he might not have been properly compensated financially for his invention and the time that he took to create it and see it to it's end. But on the other hand I respect the fact he was not in it for the financial gain. Whatever the reason for his persistance, I'm sure the world is glad he continued his creation of the web.

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Yoonjin Jun

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Jin-Joo Kim

I am very much anxious to find out what the next obstacles and good 'connections' Tim Berners and World Wide Web would encounter. I remember sitting at the guidance office and telling my dean that technology is 'scary thing'. I started to read this book to understand the web technology better. Even though I do not have half the degree of competence that typical seven years old kids feel around computers, what started as reluctant recognition of inevitability of my adaptation to technological society has turned into open armed welcome. Reading about (personally 'surprising' and 'reassuring') reluctance that might have slowed down WWW development from several state of the art scientific and so called 'progressive' communities such as 'CERN', 'ECHT', 'EBT' and more reminded me the value of persistence and patience. Also I was glad to find out that I am not quite alone at feeling reluctant and unconvinced about the impact of technology and even beings blind to its possibilities. Weaving the Web introduced me to number of people that was put into this technology from varied geographical areas and as a result made me feel less intimidated about the web technology. Seeing how technology matured (still premature?) through many individuals made me truly feel the phrase that Tim used in Foreword of the book that 'technology is inseparable child of humanity.

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Ning Lin

The Internet has grown tremendously over the last decade. Since the discussion of the first network at MIT in 1962 by JCR Licklinder and the Galactic Network until the modern era, we have come a long way in the development of technology. Over the last few years there have been various revisions made to the web and this has enabled the web to continue to grown in size without reaching the maximum capacity. Right now the web consists of various protocols such as http, ftp, tcp/ip, gopher, https, nntp, mms, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, etc., each of which has their own specialties. For example, http is used mainly for the web pages that we see, ftp is for file transfers, mms is for Windows Media, and so forth. So the web is indeed a very diverse group of data all of which is accessible provided that the user has the correct applications/programs.

 

All of this talk about web brings up several questions. Firstly, what exactly is the web? Many people have mistaken the web as the information superhighway. This is a common misconception, because the information superhighway is a concept, which is supposed to link every nerve of the modern society to a huge interconnected network, which includes household appliances. The web was originally created for the government, but since has been expanded to allow literally anyone to converse. Now the web hold terabytes of data, more than anyone would have expected and this has assisted society as a whole in many ways. Some examples of this include this include the transmission of mail. To send a letter via regular mail service typically takes a few days within the same country, but now the web has changed that and a letter can now reach the other side of the world in a matter of seconds (actual time dependent upon latency, server speeds and line conditions).

 

The Internet has touched my life in more than one life and continues to become more integrated part of the modern world and of our life. Some of the recent developments and additions to the web, which have become so much part of our lives, include the invention of E-commerce and VOIP (Voice over IP). The explosion of all of the dot com companies which are selling products/services has created a niche market which many are taking advantage of. There are many advantages of the web over traditional shopping methods. Firstly a user can shop anywhere in the world and also get it delivered to literally any address in the world provided that there is a delivery service. The costs incurred while retailing online are typically lower because the labor cost is not as great and also consumers find it more convenient because they can shop from home with less hassle. VOIP is also quite a new technology and this is allowing us to become ever closer to the actually concept of the Information Superhighway. Intel and many other companies have developed physical desk phone that allows users to talk over the Internet using various data compression technology without the use of a computer.

 

So far I have mentioned many of the benefits of the web but we should not ignore some of the dangers of the Internet. Recently the media has been filled with reports of DOS attacks which have cost some companies millions of dollars in revenues. There are hackers on the web who find it a challenge to break into other peoples' systems and steal sensitive data such as credit card information, tax information and other files. To what extent would you trust your personal data to a service provider? That is the real question. Every time there is a transaction over the Internet, it can be traced, every site, which we visit, can be tracked. How much can we trust our personal data to someone that we don't know? All of these factors must be carefully considered before we decide what we can and cannot do over the Internet. So to conclude, we have been influenced tremendously by the growth of the Internet but there are dangers of being online. Overall the benefits exceed the disadvantages of technological growth and these benefits should allow us to continue growth into the next century.

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Abigail Mathews

In his account of the origins of the World Wide Web (chapters 1-7 of Weaving the Web), Tim Berners- Lee collects and explores the disparate elements that lead to its development. Although his recounting at times seemed merely a disjointed listing of these events, it was, for the most part, fairly readable. I was particularly engaged by his discussions of the process of invention- his description of the interlocking pieces of experience, from a fatherís lecture on the applicability of neuro- science to computing, to the need for solutions to platform compatibility problems at CERN that eventually combined into a conception of what the web should be.

The administrative and bureaucratic hurdles he jumped added interest to the tale; though we know what the outcome of the story will be, it is interesting to watch as he persists despite the lack of interest and support from CERN, hypertext companies, and browser developers.

In some places, I would have appreciated a more technical approach, especially to the history of the Internet since it seems necessary to have a more firm understanding of the technological underpinnings which permitted the development of the web.

In addition, perhaps through a lack of experience in writing, the story occasionally seemed to get muddled in self- congratulatory commentary. This may be primarily a stylistic difficulty; in one paragraph, for example, he uses six ëIísí in the space of 3 sentences. Also, it is very difficult to write about a development that one was involved in without at least a twinge of egomania. With hope, the rest of the book will see Berners- Lee escape from this simple narration and begin to explore more thoroughly and impersonally the ethical and sociological implications of his invention.

Caroline Murphy

The best comment so far was when Berners-Lee admitted that he was in the right place at the right time, connected to the right people to be able to start this project. His occasional comments about his personal life are so out of place and random that they are irritating bits of punctuation throughout the writing. He speaks disparagingly of anyone in a position higher than him, although he speaks well of students and their own projects. It was furthermore disturbing each time he mentioned 'encourage, not push' as his approach to people, for example, Pei, to help them further his own agenda. Much of the history so far is an egocentric mess, with chronological flow but no narrative flow; he jumps from CERN in Switzerland to London to America so quickly sometimes that we don't know why he is there or what to make of it.

On the other hand, the writing does flow quickly and it was interesting to see the progression of conventions and programs which evolved over time. It helps to be familiar with older computer conventions and to know things like what an X Terminal is; people jumping into this book might very well be confused by his familiar use of terms. It is an interesting history so far, but when Berners-Lee veers away from history and takes his own tangents and views - and forgets others, like the roles of industries throughout this time - it comes off as egocentric and boring.

One of the most striking features that have stood out for me has been the grassroots nature of the development of the web. I guess that since the Berners-Lee's web is a first, its origins would inherently be grassroots. I think it's that we're more acustomed to seeing "older," already developed ideas be expanded upon and researched, like processor technology, tele- or cell- phones, television, etc. Seeing something that's truly new is a refreshing treat, as well a potential can of worms, not that cans of worms are necessarily bad!  

Totally new and maybe radical ideas don't seem to pop up too often. I would imagine that when new ideas do appear (in general) there isn't much consideration for the implications of those ideas. Or if there is, that there can't be a lot of "thinking ahead" since the ideas would be opening up new debates about issues that at first could have seemed unrelated. Even still, what Berners-Lee has said about how the W3C works looks to be an excellent solution.

Also, this concept of web structure (or lack there of!) is something I've seen a lot of recently (ie within the past few years). One instance that comes to mind is Fritjof Capra's The Web of Life and the film based on that book, Mind Walk. In general terms, both look at holistic (everything is connected, interplays) vs. mechanical (everything as parts, independent theories) views of our world (galaxy, universe...). Berners-Lee's web then seems to follow along a holistic view of information. Something which does puzzle me though is the actual internet. Berners-Lee created the web, which popularized the internet; but where did the internet come from?

Before I started reading the book, I knew that it's author was a genius. What I wasn't prepared for however, was his unassuming nature. In my short existence I have found such brillance to go hand in hand with arrogance. To forsake profit for the greater good (to make sure that the web continued to evolve). That is what makes him qualified to speculate on the future of the web. He is probably the only person without any hidden agendas. Personally I would like to see the web remain unrestricted and equally accessible.

He makes an allusion to the world only being connections and that information is really defined by what it's related to, and how it's related to. "The brain has no knowledge until connections are made between neurons. All that we know, all that we are, comes from the way our neurons are connected. (p.12)" That's deep.

I hate to be saying that the whole first 7 chapters was about Tim and his family and moving around and job changes and meetings and this and that, but I felt like every time I opened up the book I was reading about Tim and not about the web. I really hope that this opinion reflects the book and not just the manner in which I read it. This is just how I felt about the beginning of the book.

Also, I really hated gopher during the beginning. Tim is the star, so of course we take his side. And I was mad at gopher for trying to take over and call themsleves the web and take credit for Tim's work, etc. Then I later read that they renamed themselves Netscape, and my opinion changed. I saw the company in a completely different way once I saw what it really was.

Overall, I was kind of disappointed by the first 7 chapters. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from the book, but what I read was not it.

The first few chapters of the book really made me think as to how quickly the world wide web "weaved" into our society. When Tim Berners-Lee stated that many people were reluctant to use the new "mode of convenience" I saw how the society, even now, is so unwilling to take chances and make changes. However, the web obviously did succeed quite fast since now, almost every type of society has a web site uploaded and like Prof Kumar stated, within six clicks we can get to almost any site on the web!  

Another aspect which really struck me from reading the book was the idea of actually creating such a program! I don't know how anyone would have thought of the world wide web. Although I am still very unclear as to how much of the web and internet is accessed, it is quite impressive that this is all from simple programming of few minds! I can't even begin to imagine how the whole HTML formats became so unified among so many people of the world! All his ideas like the Enquire from when he was working at CERN really lead to so much of what is taken for granted now.

 

The fundamental principle behind the Web was that once someone somewhere made available a document, database, graphic, sound, video, or screen at some stage in an interactive dialogue, it should be accessible by anyone, with any type of computer, in any country. (ch4)

Before reading this, I had also never considered the other aspect of creating the Web, which was making people understand it and want to use it. I also never thought about the fact that there were many types of browsers or a need for standardization (ch6). I think the idea of the Web is best captured in Berners-Lee's primary mission that the Web continue to evolve.

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