Posted
on August 23, 2015
I
have never heard of the word “internaut” before – have you? –
but I read that it is a portmanteau of the words “internet” and
“astronaut.” It means a person who either designs internet sites,
or operates internet sites, or even uses internet sites (which
includes just about all of us, although I think “internaut” is
supposed to include only those of us internet-users who are
technologically knowledgeable!).
Today
is considered by some to be The Internaut's Day.
That's
because today is the anniversary of the opening up of the World Wide
Web to the general public, to new users, to the whole world.
The
World Wide Web, usually referred to as the Web (or WWW, or W3), was
the brainchild of British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. He
first developed the system of identifiers (URIs) and hyperlinks, to
be accessed via the Internet, as a better system for CERN scientists
to communicate with one another. But he instantly realized that the
system could be used throughout the world. He built the very first
website in December of 1990, tested how it worked, wrote up the
results in August of 1991, and finally opened up the system to all
users on August 23, 1991. |
| Note the sarcastic "Yeah, right" inserted by British editors over the claim that the invention of the "computer geek" Berners-Lee would change billions of lives...... And guess who got the last laugh? |
What's
the difference between the World Wide Web and the Internet?
The
Internet is a huge network of networks.
It
is the infrastructure that connects millions of computers together
all over the world. A computer in Spot A can communicate with a
computer halfway around the world, at Spot B, as long as both
computers are connected to the Internet.
Information
travels over the Internet using several different languages (or
“protocols”).
The
World Wide Web is an information-sharing model that is built on top
of the Internet. It uses only one protocol, HTTP. Users can either
type a URL (which all start “http://” and often include “www.”)
in order to find a particular website, or they can use a Web browser
such as Google to find websites that suit their needs. Websites can
include text, graphics, sounds, and videos.
If
the World Wide Web was a gigantic circle that included all websites,
the Internet would be an even larger circle that entirely contained
the Web – BUT also included e-mail, Usenet news groups, Instant
Messaging, etc.
Did
you know...?
Tim
Berners-Lee was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions
to the world, and he was also honored at the 2012 Summer Olympics
opening ceremony. He appeared in person at the London Olympic
Stadium, where he tweeted “This is for everyone.” The message was
instantly spelled out in LED lights attached to the 80,000 chairs in
the stadium. So the people sitting in the stadium got to see the
message while actually sitting within the message. Awesome-sauce!
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
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