Aumpage Network > Internet > Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee
Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee
Description of the book:
Check the prize at:US Amazon.com or German Amazon.de
If you can read this review (and voice your opinion about his book on Amazon.com), you have Tim Berners-Lee to
thank. When you've read his no-nonsense account of how he invented the World Wide Web, you'll want to thank
him again, for the sheer coolness of his ideas. One day in 1980, Berners-Lee, an Oxford-trained computer
consultant, got a random thought: "Suppose all the information stored on computers everywhere were linked?" So
he created a system to give every "page" on a computer a standard address (now called a URL, or Universal
Resource Locator), accessible via the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), formatted with the HyperText Markup
Language (HTML), and visible with the first browser, which did the trick of linking us all up.
He
may be the most self-effacing genius of the computer age, and his egalitarian mind is evident in the names he
rejected for his invention: "I thought of Mine of Information, or MOI, but moi in French means 'me,' and that
was too egocentric.... The Information Mine (TIM) was even more egocentric!" Also, a mine is a passive
repository; the Web is something that grows inexorably from everyone's contributions. Berners-Lee fully
credits the colorful characters who helped him get the bobsled of progress going--one colleague times his
haircuts to match the solstices--but he's stubbornly independent-minded. His quest is to make the Web "a place
where the whim of a human being and the reasoning of a machine coexist in an ideal, powerful mixture."
Hard-core tech types may wish Berners-Lee had gone into deeper detail about the road ahead: the "boon
and threat" of XML, free vs. commercial software, VRML 3-D imaging, and such. But he wants everyone in on the
debate, so he wrote a brisk book that virtually anyone can understand. --Tim Appelo--This text refers to an
out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description:
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.
Check the prize at:
US Amazon.com or German Amazon.de
