Happy Birthday World Wide Web

Occasionally my primary field and the topic of family history cross paths (as an example, my post from January 2013 on the UNESCO Vancouver Declaration or October 2012 on Information Standards in the Family History space). Today the World Wide Web turns 25 years old (see The Web at 25 for much more on this).

I agree with the Mozilla Blog ("25 Years of Human Potential") that the World Wide Web is the greatest platform for knowledge sharing and collaboration in the history of the world. I think back to my own early experiences with the World Wide Web, as a student at Wabash College back in 1992. In those days one had to walk to one of the few computer labs on campus and suffer through slow connection speeds, to find limited information and poor graphics. How far we have come since those days.

The World Wide Web has brought a vast collection of the world's knowledge and historical information to our fingertips. In many cases it has helped restore our personal histories, for those who seek them, and is helping to preserve the world's cultural heritage. The Web enables the full range of human potential.

Happy Birthday World Wide Web, to another twenty five years.