Summary
24 December 2010
It鈥檚 been 20 years since British scientist Tim Berners-Lee created the first webpage. The World Wide Web has since spawned about one trillion webpages. It revolutionised the way we communicate and some people can鈥檛 imagine life without it. Can you? Email us at learning.english@bbc.co.uk and tell us how you use the web.
Reporter:
Valdirene Ruston
A whole new generation grew up with the web
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Report
On Christmas Day 1990, in a laboratory in Switzerland, British physicist Tim Berners-Lee finished developing the tools to create the World Wide Web. He was working at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, Cern, in Geneva.
His boss gave him the green light to work on the project during his spare time and together with the help of his Belgian colleague Robert Cailliau, Tim Berners-Lee produced the world鈥檚 first webpage.
The experiment heralded a new era because it demonstrated how computers could talk to each other through a new language they created called Hyper-Text Markup Language, or HTML.
Currently there might be anything up to a trillion webpages with all sorts of content. People buy and sell products and services, make friends through these pages, learn and teach. We found many enthusiasts of the web in the streets of London.
Man 1: 鈥淚t means having information in your home with easy access which in the past would have only been available in thousands of libraries. So it鈥檚 information at your fingertips.鈥
Woman: 鈥淎ccess to a lot of people really. We鈥檝e got a lot of family overseas so we use Skype quite a bit.鈥
Man 2: 鈥淚nformation, news, social groups.鈥
Man 3: 鈥淚鈥檓 just using it usually for emails and social networking with my friends and well, reading newspapers and information. Basically everything!鈥
Fortunes were made in the World Wide Web. Many say that Tim Berners-Lee could have been a billionaire through his invention but he said that all he wants is to keep the egalitarian spirit of the web intact and the medium free to use. Many users share the same ideals.
Man 1: 鈥淚 think that today it is essential to have an internet connection and that鈥檚 going to be a real problem in terms of you know, digital divide when some people in the world can鈥檛 access the internet or when the speed (connection speed) is not enough.鈥
And there are other concerns.
Woman: 鈥淚鈥檓 not very keen on that because of all the privacy issues and everything, I鈥檓 very aware of it. So I try to keep private things private as much as I can.鈥
And there are the diehards, who shy away from technology.
Man 2: 鈥淚 leave it all to my wife, I hate computers.鈥
Valdirene Ruston, 大象传媒 Learning English
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Vocabulary
- physicist
expert in the scientific study of matter and energy
- tools
things that help you to do a particular activity
- the green light
here, approval. This is a reference to traffic lights
- spare time
time when you are not working
- heralded
a sign that something positive is about to happen
- content
elements or components of media
- egalitarian
belief that people have the same importance and should have the same rights and opportunities
- digital divide
used to refer to the gap between people who have access to the internet and those who don't
- diehards
people who do not want to change
- shy away
avoid something you are afraid of
