Web Pioneers, Experts Gather at Rose-Hulman to Celebrate 10th Anniversary of Public Availability of the Web

We can thank high-energy physicists for the World Wide Web.   Their desire to have a free, open source, technical environment for the transfer of scientific data was the dream of academics that launched the digital highway.   These pioneers and other noted Web experts gathered at Rose-Hulman this fall to relive the events that led to the Web’s creation and to predict the Web’s future.

Rose-Hulman attracted an international group of speakers who were featured during a conference titled, “WWW@10: The Dream and the Reality,” in reference to the 10th anniversary of the public availability of the Web.   Featured speakers included:

• Robert Cailliau, who collaborated with Tim Berners-Lee to create The World Wide Web at CERN in Switzerland.
• Paul Kunz, known as America’s first Webmaster for his development of the first Web server outside of Europe.
• Louis Pouzin, the French researcher who invented datagrams that enabled the Internet to expand quickly and inexpensively.
• Ted Nelson, who coined the word and shaped the concept of hypertext
• Jean-Francois Abramatic, former chair of the World Wide Web Consortium which developed common standards for the evolution of the Web.
• Charles Nesson, founder of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society which explores the development and standards of cyberspace.
• Lee Rainie, founding director, Pew Internet & American Life Project which studies the impact of the Internet on our daily lives.
• Cory Doctorow, award-winning science fiction writer and European affairs coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

There were several key developments that occurred that made the Web effort successful, according to Kunz, a physicist at the Stanford University Linear Accelerator Center.   

There had to exist a free network where users pay by the month not by the byte, he said.    “You had to have a common international network for everybody, the academics, commercial interests and for personal use.  There had to exist open network protocols that were not tied to one vendor.  The operating system had to know about networking.  There had to be a productive software development environment so people could try out ideas without a lot of investment,” Kunz stated.   “Another key ingredient was an open source environment in which software could be distributed for people to try and provide feedback,” he noted.

What did these pioneers and researchers think the Web would be like in 15 years?  “Life without it would be miserable,” Pouzin said.  “The Web is still a deceitful place roamed by outlaws.  The dream of the self-governed global village would need global laws and police to become a reality.”

Doctorow said infinite, less expensive data and video storage capabilities will become a reality.   Rainie believes the Web has created new civic environments, spontaneous communities in a way never thought of before. 

The original software developed to create the Web was also exhibited at the conference.  The software is on indefinite loan to Rose-Hulman as a result of the efforts of alumnus Chadd Taylor (’91).  Taylor also provided valuable assistance in contacting the featured speakers.

In addition to the featured speakers, the conference included presentations by faculty representing 15 colleges or universities.   Faculty discussed topics that ranged from Web-based course management to computer privacy and language support for mobile Web browsers.

The conference was co-sponsored by the Rose-Hulman departments of humanities and social sciences, and computer science and software engineering.  It also was supported by the Paustenbach Lecture Series, the Elsie Pawley fund, SEP Inc., and Reba Weaver.  Co-directors of the conference planning committee consisting of faculty, students and staff were William Pickett, professor of history, and Mark Ardis, professor of computer science and software engineering.