ECTO 1 Reaction:The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web first logged onto the scene in 1992 by Inventor Tim Berners-Lee in association with CERN. The internet however was born nearly ten years prior in 1983 however before the invention of the “Web” Accessing information online required coding skills, skills in programming and an overall intuition in the field of computers. This would make using the internet unreachable for many individuals. There are many people who hardly understand how to use the internet now. Imagine how bad it was before Berners-Lee's invention. With the inclusion of the Web Berners-Lee solved this problem by creating a user-friendly system that could be used by anyone. He developed three essential tools to make this possible: HTML, a language for creating pages; HTTP, a protocol for sharing information; and the first web browser. With language sharing and a basic web browser a programmer could build upon this foundation to share their website with the world in a fashion allowing anyone to view it. 

The World Wide Web changed the world of computers, solving many of the problems in communication individuals were struggling with. The Web paved the way for instant communication from computer to computer allowing for not only instant communications between individuals but between companies and consumers as well. For one of the first times in history you could be in a chat room with people living on the other side of the world from the comfort of your living room. This would also set up the rise of e-commerce, businesses like Amazon and eBay changed the way we shop.

The challenges that followed the WWW to some out weigh a lot of the benefits. At launch open access servers came in major issues like privacy, the spread of Disinformation and Malinformation. Scams would become more frequent and many did not understand systems well enough to not get taken advantage of. In addition online businesses like Amazon would go on to monopolize a lot of the shopping industry putting tons of smaller businesses out of work. In the end, the WWW transformed our lives for the better or for the worse is up to you. Berner-Lee did not make something good or bad, however he did give us tools to create on our own. I had missed the presentation day therefore my notes are comprised of the topics side and overall information.