BOOK OF THE MONTH: SEPTEMBER 2016

                                                                           
Title          : How the Web Was Born:
                   The Story of the World Wide Web
Author     : James Gillies, Robert Cailliau
Pages        : 392
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN        :10-0192862073
 
In 1994, a computer program called the Mosaic browser transformed the Internet from an academic tool into a telecommunications revolution. Now a household name, the World Wide Web is a prominent fixture in the modern communications landscape, with tens of thousands of servers providing information to millions of users. Few people, however, realize that the Web was born at C.E.R.N., the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, and that it was invented by an Englishman, Tim Berners-Lee.

The web was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automatic information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the world. The first website at CERN - and in the world - was dedicated to the World Wide Web project itself and was hosted on Berners-Lee's NeXT computer. The website described the basic features of the web; how to access other people's documents and how to set up your own server.

The NeXT machine - the original web server - is still at CERN. As part of the project to restore the first website, in 2013 CERN reinstated the world's first website to its original address. On 30 April 1993 CERN put the World Wide Web software in the public domain. CERN made the next release available with an open licence, as a more sure way to maximise its dissemination. Through these actions, making the software required to run a web server freely available, along with a basic browser and a library of code, the web was allowed to flourish.

Offering its readers an unprecedented 'insider's perspective', this new book was co-written by two CERN. employees-one of whom, Robert Cailliau, was among the Web's pioneers. It tells how the idea for the Web came about at CERN., how it was developed, and how it was eventually handed over at no charge for the rest of the world to use. The first book-length account of the Web's development, How the Web was Born draws upon several interviews with the key players in this amazing story. This compelling and highly topical book is certain to interest all general readers.

Review Courtesy: https://www.amazon.com