history - ReadWriteWeb

Happy 20th Birthday, World Wide Web

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:50:17 -0800

On March 13th, 2009 the World Wide Web will turn 20 years old. Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented this world-changing layer on top of the Internet on this day in 1989. It's hard to overstate the impact this young technology has had already and it's even more exciting to think about where it's going in the future.

Berners-Lee has some great ideas about where the web should go next. His vision is of a major advance that could serve as the foundation for innovations that we can't even imagine today.

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]]> One year ago Berners-Lee said that all the pieces needed to build a new Semantic Web are now in place. Last month he gave an impassioned talk at the high-profile TED conference about a related concept called Linked Data, a set of ideas he outlined in 2006. The gist of the idea is that we need every institution that can do so to put raw data in a standardized format up on the web.

What's so exciting about raw data? We'll defer to Berners-Lee's 15 minute explanation at this year's TED conference. The video of his talk will be posted on the TED website early Friday morning, but ReadWriteWeb readers can check it out now.

Thank you Tim, for what you've done for the world already.

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Full Harper's Index Now Searchable Online

Marshall Kirkpatrick — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 15:43:11 -0800

Chance you could search the full Harper's Index online, last week: 0% Chance you can do so today: 100%

Harper's Index, the most thought provoking fun you'll find on one printed page, is turning 25 years old. Harper's Magazine, launched in 1850, is the 2nd longest continuously published magazine in the United States (behind Scientific American) but the Index is the first page that many readers skip to in each issue. To celebrate the Index's anniversary, Harper's has put the full index of biting trivia one-liners up on its website for searching and reposting on Twitter. Welcome to the 21st century Harper's Index, may you bring us as much joy and reflection in the future as you always have in the past.

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]]> If you've never read the Harper's Index, you're in for a treat. In an age when blogs like Boing Boing have built huge audiences by collecting fascinating little tidbits from around the web, it's good to remember the predecessor of the art, Harper's. The company's research interns have scoured offline media for timely factoids since 1984.

New York Times City Room editor Patrick LaForge noted the new page's availability this afternoon and the official Harper's Twitter account announced a "Twitter sneak preview" yesterday. Search results are displayed just like a topically organized installment of the traditional Index, but with sources displayed and a link to Tweet each fact when you hover over one with your mouse. It's quite nice.

This is a great way to introduce the print publication to a new generation of readers. We hope it will help this institution continue to thrive into the next era of media.

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Video: History of the Internet

Richard MacManus — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:22:56 -0800

If you've ever wondered how the Internet was born, but can't be bothered reading a whole book on the subject, check out this short animated documentary from Milah Bilgil. Entitled History of the internet, it does a great job explaining time-sharing, file-sharing, arpanet and internet. The video uses a new type of info-graphic called PICOL icons, which will soon be made available for free on picol.org. PICOL stands for Pictorial Communication Language - it's a project that aims to create "a standard and reduced sign system for electronic communication." PICOL is free to use and open to alter.

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History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

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