Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, Ari Luotonen, Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, and Arthur Secret
`
`®Checkfor
`updates,
`
`The World-wide Web
`
`The World-Wide Web (W3) was
`developed to be a pool of human
`knowledge, which would allowcol-
`laborators in remotesites to share
`
`ple) the directory structure of an ex-
`isting file store. This allows existing
`data to be put “on the Web” without
`further human effort.
`
`e There is a very extendable system
`for introducing newformats for mul-
`timedia data.
`
`(’anchor”) causes the client program
`to retrieve another object from some
`other computer, a “server.” The re-
`trieved object
`is normally also in a
`hypertext
`format, so the process of
`their ideas andall aspects of a com-
`mon project. Physicists and engi-
`navigation continues (see Figure 1).
`When viewing some documents,
`neers at CERN,
`the European
`the reader can request a search, by
`
`Particle Physics Laboratory in * There are many W3>chent pro-
`Geneva, Switzerland, collaborate
`grams. As hypertext
`information is
`typing in plain text (or complex com-
`mands) to send to the server, rathe1
`with manyother institutes to build
`transmitted on the network in logical
`the software and hardware for high-
`(mark-up) form, each client can inter-
`than following a link. In either case,
`pret
`this in a way natural
`for
`the
`energy physics research. Theidea of
`the client sends a request off to the
`given plattorm, making optimal use
`the Web was prompted by positive
`server, often a completely different
`of fonts, colors, and other human in-
`experience of a small “home-brew”
`machine in some other part of the
`terface resources available on that
`personal hypertext system used for
`world, and within (typically) a sec-
`ond,
`the related information,
`in ei
`platform.
`keeping track of personal informa-
`tion on a distributed project. The
`ther hypertext, plain text or multime-
`Web was designedso that if it was
`dia format, is presented. This ts done
`used independently for two proj-
`repeatedly, and by a sequence of se-
`lections and searches one can find
`ects, and later relationships were
`anything that
`is “out
`there.” Some
`found between the projects, then
`no major or centralized changes
`important things to note are:
`would have to be made, but the
`information could smoothlyre-
`shape to represent the newstate of
`knowledge. This property ofscaling
`has allowed the Web to expand
`rapidly from its origins at CERN
`across the Internet irrespective of
`boundaries of nations ordisciplines.
`If you haven't yet experienced the
`Web, the best wayto find out about it
`is to try it. An Appendix to this article
`gives somerecipes for getting hold of
`W3clients. Given one of these, you
`will quickly find out all you need to
`know, and much more. For hard
`copy to read on the plane, or if you
`don’t have Internet access from your
`desktop machine, refer to our pape)
`in Electronic Networking (see “Glossary
`and Further Reading”) for an over-
`view of the project, material which we
`will not
`repeat but will summarize
`here.
`
`What Does W3 Define?
`W3has cometo stand for a number
`
`of things, which should be distin-
`guished. These include
`® The idea of a boundless informa-
`tion world in which all
`items have
`
`reference by which they can be
`a
`retrieved;
`® The address system (URI) which
`the project implemented to make this
`world possible, despite many differ-
`ent protocols;
`« A network protocol (HTTP) used
`by native W3 servers giving perfor-
`mance and features not otherwise
`available;
`e A markup language (HTML) which
`every W3client is required to under-
`stand, and is used for the transmis-
`sion of basic things such as
`text,
`menus andsimple on-line help infor-
`mation across the net;
`* The body of data available on the
`Internet using all or someof the pre-
`ceding listed items.
`The client-server architecture of
`
`the
`
`Webis illustrated in Figure 2.
`
`Universal Resource identifiers
`Universal
`Resource
`Identifiers!
`(URIs) are the strings used as adl-
`
`The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is
`currently defining a similar and derived syntax
`known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
`As this work is not complete, and there is ne
`guarantee that URLs will have the same syntax
`or properties as URIs, we use the term URI here
`to avoid confusion. Netflix v. GoTV
`Netflix v. GoTV
`IPR2023-00758
`IPR2023-00758
`Netflix Ex. 1016
`Netflix Ex. 1016
`
`the usel
`e Whatever type of server,
`interface is the same, so users do not
`need to understand the differences
`
`between the many protocols in com-
`mon use, Before W3, access to net-
`worked
`information
`typically
`—in-
`volved knowledge of many different
`access “recipes” for different systems,
`and a different command language
`for each.
`‘The model of hypertext
`with text input has provedsufficiently
`powerful to express all the user inter-
`faces, while being sufficiently simple
`to require no training for a computer
`user.
`
`to anything that
`® Links can point
`including search
`can be displayed,
`result lists. (When a queryis applied
`to an object, the resulting object has
`an address, defined to be the address
`of
`the queried object concatenated
`with the text of the query. As the re-
`sult object has an address, one can
`makelinks to it. Following the link
`later leads to a reevaluation ofthe
`
`query.)
`¢ While menus and directories are
`
`available, the extra option of hyper-
`text provides a more powerful com-
`munications tool. In simple cases, the
`server program can generate a hy-
`pertext view representing (for exam-
`
`A W3 “client” program runs on
`your computer. When it starts, it dis-
`plays an object, normally a document
`with text and possibly images. Some
`of the phrases and images are high-
`lighted: in blue, or boxed, or perhaps
`numbered, depending on what sort
`of a display you have and how you
`preferences have been set. Clicking
`the mouse on the highlighted area
`
`76 August I994/ Volj?, No. COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM
`
`

`

`
`
`

`

`
`
`dresses of objects (e.g., menus, docu-
`ments, images) on the Web. For ex-
`ample, the URI of the main page for
`the WWWproject happens to be
`
`http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/
`WWW/TheProject. htm)
`
`URIs are “Universal” in that they
`encode members ofthe universal set
`of network addresses. For a newnet-
`work protocol that has some concept
`of object, one can form an address for
`any object as the set of protocol pa-
`rameters necessary to access the ob-
`ject. If these parameters are encoded
`into a concise string, with a prefix to
`identify the protocol and encoding,
`one has a new URI scheme. There
`are URIs for Internet news articles
`and newsgroups (the NNTP proto-
`col), and for FTP archives, for telnet
`destinations, email addresses, and so
`on. The same can be done for names
`of objects in a given name space.
`The prefix “http” in the preceding
`example indicates the address space,
`and defines the interpretation ofthe
`rest of the string. The HTTP protocol
`is to be used, so the string contains
`the address of the server to be con-
`tacted, anda substring to be passedto
`the server. Different protocols use
`different syntaxes, but there is a small
`amount of commonsyntax. For ex-
`ample, the common URI syntax re-
`serves the “/" as a way of representing
`a hierarchical space, and “?” as a sep-
`arator between the address ofan ob-
`ject and a queryoperation appliedto
`it. As these forms recur in several in-
`formation systems,
`to allow expres-
`sion of them in the common syntax
`allows the features to be retained in
`the common model, where appropri-
`ate. Hierarchical forms are useful for
`hypertext, where one “work” maybe
`split up into manyinterlinked docu-
`ments. Relative names exploit
`the
`hierarchical structure andallowlinks
`to be made within the work indepen-
`dent of the higher parts of the URI
`such as the server name.
`URI syntax allows objects to be
`addressed not only using HTTP, but
`also using the other common. net-
`worked information protocols in use
`today (FIP, NNTP, Gopher, and
`WAIS), and will allow extension when
`newprotocols are developed.
`URIs are central to the W3archi-
`
`tecture. Thefact that it is easy to ad-
`dress an object anywhere on the
`Internet is essential for the system to
`scale, and for the information space
`to be independent of the network
`and server topology.
`
`Hypertext Transfer Protocol
`misnamed,
`rather
`than
`Perhaps
`being a protocol for transferring hy-
`pertext, HTTPis a protocol for trans-
`ferring information with the effi-
`necessary
`for
`ciency
`making
`hypertext
`jumps, The data trans-
`ferred may be plain text, hypertext,
`images, or anything else.
`When a user browses the Web, ob-
`jects are retrievedin rapid succession
`from often widely dispersed servers.
`For small documents, the limitations
`to the response time stem mainly
`from the numberof roundtrip delays
`across the network necessary before
`the rendition of the object can be
`started. HTTP is therefore a simple
`request/response protocol.
`HTTP does not only transfer
`HTMLdocuments. Although HTML
`comprehensionis required of W3cli-
`ents, HTTP is used for retrieving
`documents in an unboundedandex-
`tensible set of formats. To achieve
`
`this, the client sends a (weighted) list
`of the formats it can handle, and the
`server
`replies with data in any of
`those formats that
`it can produce.
`This allows proprietary formats to be
`used between consenting programs
`in private, without the needfor stan-
`dardization of those formats. This is
`important both for high-end users
`who
`share data
`in
`sophisticated
`forms, andalso as a hook for formats
`that have yet
`to be invented. The
`same negotiation system is used for
`natural
`language (English, French,
`for example) where available, as well
`as for compression forms.
`HTTPis an Internet protocol. It is
`similarin its readable, text-basedstyle
`to the File Transfer (FTP) and Net-
`work News (NNTP) Protocols that
`have been used to transfer files and
`news on the Internet for manyyears.
`Unlike
`these protocols,
`however,
`HTTP,
`is stateless. (That is,
`it runs
`over a TCP connection that
`is held
`only for the duration of one opera-
`tion.) The stateless model is efficient
`when alink fromone object maylead
`equally well to an object stored on the
`
`same server, or to another distant
`server. The purpose of a reference
`such as a URI is thatit should always
`refer to the “same” (in some sense)
`object. This also makes a. stateless
`protocol appropriate, as it returns
`results based on the URI but irrele-
`vant of any previous Operations per-
`formedby theclient.
`‘The H'PITP request fromthe client
`starts with an operation code (known
`as the method,
`in conformance with
`object-oriented terminology) and the
`URI of
`the object. The
`“GET”
`method used byall browsers is de-
`fined to be idempotent
`in that
`it
`should preserve the state of the Web
`(apart
`frombilling for the informa-
`tion transfer, andstatistics).A “PUT
`methodis defined for front-end up-
`date, and a “POST” methodfor the
`attachment of a new document to the
`Web, or submissionofa filled-in form
`or other object
`to some processor.
`Use of PUT and POST is currently
`limited, partly due to scarcity of hy-
`editors.
`pertext
`The extension to
`other methods is a subject ofstudy.
`When objects are transferred over
`the network, information about them
`(“metainformation”’) is transferred in
`HTTP headers. The set of headers is
`an extension of the Multipurpose
`Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) set.
`This design decision was taken to
`open the door to integration of hy-
`permedia mail, news, and informa-
`tion access. Unlike in email, transfer
`in binary, and transfer in nonstan-
`dard but mutually agreed document
`formats is possible. This allows, for
`example, servers
`to indicate links
`from, andtitles of, documents (such
`as bit-map images) whose data format
`does not otherwise include such in-
`formation.
`
`‘The convention that unrecognized
`HTTP headers and parameters are
`ignored has made it easy to try new
`ideas on working production servers.
`This has allowed the protocol defini-
`tion to evolve in a controlled way by
`the incorporation of tested ideas.
`
`Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
`Despite the ability ofHTTP to negoti-
`ate formats, W3 needed a common
`basic language of interchange for
`hypertext. HTMLis that
`language,
`and muchof the fabric of the Webis
`
`constructed out of it. It was designed
`
`78 August 1994/Vol.57, No.8 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM
`
`

`

`
`
`Cr
`Info
`| Mark all
`4
`Navigate
`+ Mark selection M
`Link to marked
`1
`Document
`
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`Link to New
`aea
`
`Uniink.
`World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject Catalogue
`ie
`
`Tim's Home Page
`My home page
`
`xy
`
`x!
`
`
`
`(=
`Sh
`"The WWW Virtual Libra
`
`High-Energy Pirysics Information
`o)
`
`
`CERN Welcome
`fe]
`[ou
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`
`
`This is aq
`type
`an
`Mailto 5
`lo add po
`administr
`
`CERN Expernnents
`
`
`Page layout
`Windows
`Services
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`h
`Qua
`q
`
`7!
`
`See also
`
`Aeronaul
`
`Agricultu
`
`Anthropology
`
`Archaeology
`
`Asian Studies
`Asironom
`
`CASOeTbRS
`
`i
`
`
`LEP experiment
`
`
`fEuropean Laboratory for P:
`
`A Largelon Collider
`Geneva, Switzerla
`LHC
`
`A Toroidal LHC Appar
`WASB- Neutrino oscilla
`
`f
`CERN
`a"
`
`
`
`i
`Compact Muon Solend
`
`
`
`
`
`to be sufficiently simple so as to be
`easily produced by both people and
`programs, but also to adhere to the
`SGML standard in
`that
`a_
`valid
`HTML document,
`if attached to
`SGML declarations
`including the
`HTML “DTD,” may be parsed by an
`SGML. parser. HTML is a markup
`language that does not have to be
`used with HTTP.
`It can be used in
`hypertext email (it
`is proposed as a
`format for MIME), news, and any-
`where basic hypertext is needed. It
`includes simple structure elements,
`suchas several levels of headings, bul-
`leted lists, menus ancl compact lists,
`all of which are useful when present-
`ing choices, and in on-line docu-
`ments.
`
`Under development is a much en-
`riched version of HTML knownhas
`HTML+. This includes features for
`
`more sophisticated on-line documen-
`tation, form templates for the entry of
`data by users, tables and mathemati-
`cal formulae. Currently many brows-
`
`Figure 1. Using the World-Wide Web. Shown hereis the authors’ pro-
`totype World-Wide Web application for NextStep machines. The appli-
`cation initially displays the user’s ‘home page (top) of personal
`notes and links (top). Clicking on underlined text takes the reader to
`new documents. In this case, the user visited the Virtual Library, and,
`inthe high energy physics department, founda link to CERN. Linked
`to CERN was the "Atlas" collaboration’s web including an engineer-
`ing drawing (background). To save having to follow the same path
`again, the link menu (shown) allows a new link to be made, for example
`from text typed into the home page, directly to the Atlas information.
`
`ers support a subset of the HTML+
`features
`in
`addition to
`the core
`HTMLset.
`
`HTML is definedto be a language
`of communication, which actually
`flows over the network. There is no
`requirement
`that
`files are stored in
`HTML. Servers may store files
`in
`other formats, or in variations on
`HTML that
`include extra informa-
`tion oflocal interest only, and then
`generate HTML onthefly with each
`request.
`
`W3 and Other Systems
`Two
`(from
`other
`systems, WAIS
`Thinking Machines Corporation and
`now WAIS, Inc.) and Gopher (from
`the University of Minnesota), share
`W3's client-server architecture and a
`
`certain amount of its functionality.
`‘Table |
`indicates some of the cdiffer-
`ences.
`
`influenced
`is
`The WAIS protocol
`largely by the 239.50 protocol de-
`signed for networking library cata-
`logs.
`It allows a text-based search,
`
`COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Aucus! 1994) Vol57, No.8 79
`
`

`

`Table 1. A comparison of three popular networkinformation projects.
`Registered server figures taken April 27, 1993 and April 15, 1994. WAIS: from Thinking Machines Corporation
`directory, number of distinct hosts. Gopher: from ‘‘All the Gophers in the world” register at the University
`of Minnesota. W3: from Geographical registry at CERN. In all cases many more servers exist which are not
`directly registered, so these are a very rough guide with no indication of quantity or quality of
`information at each host.
`
`work
`
`lext-based
`information
`retrieval
`
`Gopher
`
`Campus-wide
`information
`(CWIS)
`
`World-Wide
`Web
`
`Collaborative
`
`Original target
`application
`
`Typical objects
`Text
`
`Menus, Graphics
`Hypertext
`
`Search functions
`Text search
`Relevance feedback
`Reference to other
`servers
`
`Registered servers
`April 1993
`April 1994
`
`and retrieval following a search. In-
`dexes to be searched are found by
`searching in a master
`index. This
`two-stage search has been demon-
`strated to be sufficiently powerful to
`cover
`the current world of
`WAIS
`
`All three systems allowfor the pro-
`vision of graphics, sound and video,
`although because the WAIS system
`only has access by text search, text has
`to be associated with graphics files to
`allow them to be found.
`
`tion has been completely rewritten.
`‘There are now 829 (May:
`1,248)
`rather than 62 registered HTTP serv-
`ers, and many more client programs
`available as then.
`
`
`
`The imitial prototype W3client was
`a “wysiwve” hypertext browser/editor
`W3clients provide access to servers
`data. There are no navigational tools
`to allow the reader to be shown the
`using NeXTStep. We developed a
`of all types, as a single simple inter-
`
`available—resources, however, or face to the whole Web is considered
`
`
`line modebrowser, and were encour-
`Unknown to the
`aging the developments of a good
`guided through the data: the reader
`very important.
`browser for X workstations. One year
`is “parachuted in” to a hopefully rele-
`user, several protocols are in use be-
`hind the scenes. A common codeli-
`ago, NCSA’s Mosaic W3 browser was
`vant spot
`in the information world,
`in wide use on X workstations.
`Its
`but left without context.
`brary “libwww” put into the public
`domain by CERN has promotedthis
`uniformity. Whereas one would not
`wish to see greater proliferation of
`protocols, the existence of more than
`one protocol probably allows for the
`most
`rapid
`progress during this
`phase in the development ofthe field.
`It also allows a certain limited confi-
`dencethat, if an architecture can en-
`
`easy installation and use was a major
`reason for
`the spread of the Web.
`‘Today there are many browsers avail-
`able for workstations, Macintosh and
`IBM/PC compatible machines, and
`for users with character-based termi-
`
`Gopherprovides a free text search
`uses
`mechanism,
`but
`principally
`menus. A menu ts alist oftitles, from
`which the user may pick one. While
`gopher space is in fact a web contain-
`ing many loops,
`the menu system
`gives the user the impression of a
`tree. The Veronica server provides a
`master index for gopherspace.
`The W3 data model
`is similar to
`
`the gopher model, except that menus
`are generalized to hypertext docu-
`ments. In both cases, simple file serv-
`ers generate the menus or hypertext
`directly from the file structure of a
`The availability of browsers and
`Recent W3 Developments
`server. The W3>hypertext model
`‘This article, like others in this issue,
`the availability of quality information
`gives the program more power to
`was derived from material written in
`have provoked each other. One avail-
`communicate the options available to
`able indicator of growth has been
`the reader, as it can include headings
`Merit Inc.’s count of the traffic of var-
`andvarious forms oflist structure, for
`ious different protocols across the
`example, within the hypertext.
`
`nals. Of the latter category, “Lynx”
`from the University of Kansas pro-
`vides full-screen access to the Webfor
`users with character
`terminals or
`
`emulators running on personal com-
`puters. Since newsoftware is appear-
`ing frequently, readers are advised to
`check the lists on the Web for those
`most suited to their needs.
`
`systems and allow
`compass older
`transition to Current systems,
`it will,
`by induction, be able to provide a
`transition to newer and better ideas
`
`as they are invented.
`
`April 1993 for the INET’93 conter-
`ence. Growth of the Web since that
`
`time has been so great
`
`that this sec-
`
`80 August 1994/Vol.37, No.) COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM
`
`

`

`(see
`
`NSF 13 backbone in the U.S.
`Figure3).
`An indicator of the uptake rate of
`clients is the load on the imfo.cern.ch.
`WSserver at CERN, which provides
`information about
`the Web itself,
`which more than doubled every
`4
`
`months over the three years between
`April 1991 and April 1994.
`Information providers have also
`blossomed, Some of
`these provide
`simple overviews of what
`is available
`at particular institutes or in particular
`fields. Others use the power of
`the
`W3 model to provide a virtual world
`of great richness. Examples of servers
`that use hypertext in interesting ways
`are the RAL-Durham Particle Data-
`
`base, and the Legal Information In-
`stitute’s hypertexts of several great
`tomes
`of American
`law.
`Franz
`
`Hoesel’s hypertext version of the Vat-
`ican’s Renaissance Culture exhibit at
`
`the Library of Congress set an exam-
`ple that was followed by many collec-
`tions of art, history and other fields.
`‘The Palo Alto town hall runs a server
`
`with everything from building regu-
`lations to restaurants. As an example
`of the increasing use of the Web for
`commerce,
`a user-friendly
`virtual
`clothing store prompts for one’s size,
`and points to a virtual store contain-
`ing only those clothes that are the
`right size and also in stock.
`
`The Future
`‘The W3initiative occupies the meet-
`ing pomt of many fields of
`technol-
`ogy. Users put pressure and effort
`into bringing about the adoption of
`W3in new areas. Apart from being a
`place of communication and learn-
`ing, and a new market place, the Web
`is a show ground for new develop-
`ments
`im
`information technology.
`Some of
`the developments that we
`look forward to in the next few years
`include
`
`© ‘The implementation of a name ser-
`vice that will allow documents to be
`referenced by name, independent of
`their location;
`© Hypertext editors allowing nonex-
`pert users to make hypertext links to
`organize published information.
`‘Uhis
`will bring the goal of computer-
`supported collaboration closer, with
`front-end update, and annotation;
`* More sophisticated document type
`definitions providing for the needs of
`
`Unix
`X11
`
`NextStep
`
`Terminal
`emulator
`
`PC or
`Macintosh
`
`
`
` , Protocols,
`100 Megabytes 10 Megabytes
`
`Database,info
`system,etc.
`
`Figure 2. The World-Wide Web client-server architecture. For pub-
`lished information to be universally available, W3 relies on acommon
`addressing syntax, aset of Common protocols, and negotiation of
`data formats.
`
`10 Terabytes
`
`1 Terabyte
`
`100 Gigabytes
`
`10 Gigabytes
`
`1 Gigabyte
`
`9211
`
`9301
`
`9303
`
`9305
`
`9307
`
`9309
`
`9311
`
`9401
`
`9403
`
`Figure 3. Traffic in bytes per month across the NSF T3 backbone in
`the U.S. File Transfer Protocol (FTP) was traditionally used to access
`archives of software. FTP uses separate connections for control and
`data flow. WAIS arose as an interface to text retrieval systems, Gopher
`protocol with menu-style interfaces, and W3's HTTP with hypertext
`and multimedia. W3 clients handle many protocols to accessall these
`worlds of data as aseamless continuum, but new W3 servers use HTTP
`by preference. Each vertical division represents a tenfold increase in
`traffic. The horizontal divisions are months. Data: Merit < ftp://ftp.
`merit.edu/statistics/nsfnet >
`
` uuust 94/Vol
`
`37, Noe BA
`
`

`

`ent browsers are available on the Web—
`
`just follow a link to World-Wide Web, and
`select ‘software available.”
`Glossary and Further Reading
`The kernel W3 code (a common codeli-
`brary, and basic server and clients) from
`FTP: File Transfer Protocol. Postel, J. and Reynolds, J. File Transfer Protocol.
`CERN is in the public domain. (All protocols
`Internet RFC 959, October 1985. <ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc959.txt>
`and specifications are public domain.) It is
`Gopher: The Internet Gopher. Anklesaria, F. et. al. The Internet Gopher Protocol.
`available by anonymous FTP from_in-
`Internet RFC 1436, March 1993. <ftp://ds.internic.net/rfe/rfcl1436.txt>
`fo.cern.ch
`HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. Berners-Lee, T., and Connolly, D. Hypertext
`NCSA's ''Mosaic” browser for W3is avail-
`Markup Language Protocol. <ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/doc/html-spec.ps,
`able for X, Mac or PC/Windows by anony-
`txt>
`mous FTP from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu, cur-
`HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Berners-Lee, T. Hypertext Transfer Protocol.
`rently without charge for academic users.
`<ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/doc/http-spec.ps, .txt>
`MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. Borenstein, N., and Freed, N.
`MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions): Mechanismsfor Specifying and
`Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies. Internet RFC 1341, June
`1992.
`NNTP: Network News Transfer Protocol. Kantor, B. and Lapsley, P. A proposed
`standard for the transmission of news. Internet RFC 977, 1986.
`URI: Universal Resource Identifier. Berners-Lee, T. Universal Resource Identifiers
`for the World-Wide Web. Submitted as an Internet RFC as yet unnumbered. See
`<http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Addressing/Addressing. html> for point-
`ers to information on this area.
`WAIS: Wide Area Information Servers. See Addyman, T. WAIS: Strengths, Weak-
`nesses and Opportunities. In Proceedings of information Networking 93 (Lon-
`don, May 1993), Meckler, London.
`W3: Berners-Lee, T.J., Cailliau, R., Groff, J-F, Pollermann, B. World-Wide Web: The
`information universe. Electronic Networking: Research, Applications and Policy,
`(Spring 1992), 52-58. See also documentsin <ftp://info.cern.ch/pub/www/doc>
`and information referenced by <http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/
`TheProject.htm1>
`
`of W3 by CERN experiments and other
`physics institutes. He is a long-time userof
`HyperCard, and has been working on W3
`since 1991, contributing manyideas, and
`some software for the Macintosh. email:
`cailhau@@ www.cern.ch
`ARI LUOTONENis a memberof CERN’s
`technical student program in conjunction
`with his studies at Tampere Universityof
`on the Webitself. Also in the “Web
`lechnology, Finland. Current
`research
`about the Web” are lists of contrib-
`interests
`include
`developing CERN’s
`uted research and development work
`¢ The development of a commonfor-
`“httpd” HTTPserver for Unix and VMS
`and ideas, and pointers to work in
`mat for hypertext links from two- and
`systems. email: luotonen@ www.cern.ch
`HENRIK FRYSTYK NIELSEN, of <Aal-
`
`
`three-dimensional images—giving progress, so that those interested can
`more exciting interface possibilities;
`work together,
`borg University, Denmark, is also a CERN
`technical student. He is working on the
`The Web does not yet meet its de-
`e Integration with concurrent edi-
`kernel code, with research interests in
`tors and other
`real-time features
`sign goal as being a pool of knowl-
`edge that is as easy to update as to
`read.
`That
`level of immediacy of
`knowledge sharing waits for easy-to-
`use hypertext editors to be generally
`available on most platforms. Most in-
`formation has in fact passed through
`publishers or system managers of one
`sort or another. However, the incred-
`ible diversity of information available
`gives great credit to the creativity and
`ingenuity of information providers,
`and points to a very exciting future.
`Gg
`
`commercial
`material;
`
`publishers of on-line
`
`low-end
`
`About the Authors:
`
`the
`TIM BERNERS-LEE originated
`World-Wide Web in 1990 to enable the
`sharing of knowledge by complex distrib-
`uted teams. At CERN he coordinates W3
`development by collaborating with insti-
`tutes around the world. Current research
`
`interests include text processing, graphics,
`communications software, and system de-
`sign. email: timbl@info.cern.ch
`ROBERTCAILLIAU coordinates the use
`
`enhanced networking protocols. email:
`frystykK@info.cern.ch
`ARTHUR SECRET wrote thefirst gate-
`way giving W3 access to a relational data-
`base in 1992, while studying Computer
`Science at Ecole Internationale des 5Sci-
`ences du Traitement de Information in
`Paris, France, as a CERN technical stu-
`dent. Among othertasks in the CERN W3
`team, he currently organizes the catalog-
`ing of new W3 material in the “virtual li-
`brary.” email: secret@info.cern.ch
`
`Authors’ Present Address: CERN, 1211
`Geneva 23, Switzerland.
`
`Permission to copy without fee all or part of this
`material is granted provided that the copies are
`not made or distributed for direct commercial
`advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the
`ttle of the publication andits date appear, and
`notice is given that copying is by permission of
`the Association for Computing Machinery. To
`copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee
`and/or specific permission.
`© ACM 0002-0782/94/0800 $3.50
`
`such as teleconferencing and virtual
`reality;
`® Easy-to-use
`machines
`to
`
`for
`servers
`ease
`publication
`of
`information by small groups and
`individuals;
`from being
`® Evolution of objects
`human-readable docu-
`principally
`ments
`to
`contain more machine-
`oriented semantic information, allow-
`
`ing more sophisticated processing;
`e Conventions on the Internet
`for
`
`charging and commercial use to allow
`direct access to for-profit services.
`
`Conclusion
`It is intendedthat after reading this
`article you will have an idea of what
`W3 is, where it fits in with other sys-
`tems in the field, and where it
`is
`going. There is much more to be
`said,
`about
`especially
`providing
`information, but
`this
`is described
`
`Appendix.
`Getting Started
`If you have a vt100 terminal, you can try
`out a full-screen interface by telnet to
`ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu and logging in as
`www. With any terminal, you can telnet to
`info.cern.ch for the simplest
`interface.
`These browsersare also available in source
`and in some cases binary form. Details of
`status and coordinates of about20 differ-
`
`32 August 1994/Vol.37, No.8 COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM
`
`