The recent history of the Web
A short history of the Web: the Web as a sociotechnical network of networks.
How did the World Wide Web emerge from the physics laboratories at CERN to become the largest information construct in human history?
This short history of the Web highlights the combination of social, economic, political and technical processes that have shaped its history over the past 25 years and considers ‘where are we now’.
In this video lecture by Professor Susan Halford you will learn more about some of the key factors and processes that shaped the evolution of the Web from 1989 to the present day*.
*Note: The figures presented by Susan change rapidly, but her argument remains the same. See the latest statistics from the UK Office for National Statistics about internet users in the UK and from Internet Live Stats for the number of internet users in the world.
You may also be interested in watching a TedTalk by Sir Tim Berners-Lee on ‘The Next Web’. Susan and Les have also written some academic papers in this area.
Links to all of these can be found in the ‘see also’ section at the bottom of this page.
Web Science: How the Web Is Changing the World
Web Science: How the Web Is Changing the World
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