A look at the first Web server at CERN

April 1, 2008 By

Here’s the first part of our CERN tour. This part is with Ben Segal, who was one of Tim Berners-Lee’s mentors. He talks about the first days of the World Wide Web (it was invented at CERN) and shows us the first Web server.

Oh, can you spot famous science fiction author Bruce Sterling in the video?

Filed Under: CERN Tour, Hoaxes, Web, WWW
  • http://therealmccrea.wordpress.com/ John McCrea

    Great interview.
    What a great time that reminds me of, when the Web was first emerging. I found this clip the other day, which I had developed for the launch of WebFORCE in January of 1995. WebFORCE was the first turnkey web server — and the workstation flavor of it included WebMagic, the first WYSIWYG HTML editor. This clip is extremely dated now, but such is life: http://youtube.com/watch?v=sD2ku1a8N9U

  • http://therealmccrea.wordpress.com John McCrea

    Great interview.
    What a great time that reminds me of, when the Web was first emerging. I found this clip the other day, which I had developed for the launch of WebFORCE in January of 1995. WebFORCE was the first turnkey web server — and the workstation flavor of it included WebMagic, the first WYSIWYG HTML editor. This clip is extremely dated now, but such is life: http://youtube.com/watch?v=sD2ku1a8N9U

  • http://searchengines.wordpress.com/ SearchEngines

    Google video for archival purposes

    It would have been even better to have included related segments from your brief interview with Berners-Lee as well as talking to some of the Interns who also worked on the Web

  • http://searchengines.wordpress.com/ SearchEngines

    Google video for archival purposes

    It would have been even better to have included related segments from your brief interview with Berners-Lee as well as talking to some of the Interns who also worked on the Web

  • http://blog.macb.net macbeach

    I wonder to what extent todays audience fails to appreciate both the power of HTML (in its original form) syntax as well as its simplicity compared to what we have today. Linking documents together so that they appeared as one complete whole was unheard of, and you only had to learn a dozen commands or less.

    Today, people think they can only create a web page with the help of a tool, and the notion of linking a document, photo, or file from another machine is frowned upon rather than encouraged.

    It is human nature I guess to go from simple concept, right past the sweet spot on onto something that is almost unmanageable. Human nature, in this case of course, helped along by organizations that had no intention of letting the Internet achieve its full potential. How much better it could have been had Microsoft (for one) been on board from the beginning.

  • http://blog.macb.net macbeach

    I wonder to what extent todays audience fails to appreciate both the power of HTML (in its original form) syntax as well as its simplicity compared to what we have today. Linking documents together so that they appeared as one complete whole was unheard of, and you only had to learn a dozen commands or less.

    Today, people think they can only create a web page with the help of a tool, and the notion of linking a document, photo, or file from another machine is frowned upon rather than encouraged.

    It is human nature I guess to go from simple concept, right past the sweet spot on onto something that is almost unmanageable. Human nature, in this case of course, helped along by organizations that had no intention of letting the Internet achieve its full potential. How much better it could have been had Microsoft (for one) been on board from the beginning.

  • http://www.brethorsting.com/ Aaron Brethorst

    Hey Scoble – I shot you an email a couple days back about something that’s being announced next week. I’d love to still talk to you about it if you have the opportunity to reply.

    thanks!
    Aaron

  • http://www.brethorsting.com Aaron Brethorst

    Hey Scoble – I shot you an email a couple days back about something that’s being announced next week. I’d love to still talk to you about it if you have the opportunity to reply.

    thanks!
    Aaron

  • http://mikewoodphotography.blogspot.com/ mike wood

    that’s very cool. Thanks for posting that video. :)

    And I agree with macbeach above. I don’t think people today (who are in their early 20s say),really get what a revolution it was back then to hand code HTML and link diverse documents or photos together. Now it’s so complex and there are so many standards and ways of doing something that won’t be compatible with someone out there… not saying old school was the way it should have stayed, but still. :)

  • http://mikewoodphotography.blogspot.com mike wood

    that’s very cool. Thanks for posting that video. :)

    And I agree with macbeach above. I don’t think people today (who are in their early 20s say),really get what a revolution it was back then to hand code HTML and link diverse documents or photos together. Now it’s so complex and there are so many standards and ways of doing something that won’t be compatible with someone out there… not saying old school was the way it should have stayed, but still. :)

  • Pingback: Saturday night links

  • Pingback: FreshNetworks Blog » Blog Archive » Vague but exciting - the creator of the Web

  • Pingback: At one time it was possible to “shutdown the Internet” | ThomasNicholson.com