World Wide Web and Internet's Key Figures

The Internet is a huge technological advancement that started in 1969 with what we called then the ARPANET, the internet's predecessor. A great force that aimed to help in the cold war between two clashing nations—the United States and Soviet Union— by strengthening defense and maintaining offense. 

With the internet’s complexity, it is not possible that a single person could have invented it alone. Thus, multiple brightest minds of that time merged to help and revolutionize the world.

Some of the key figures who contributed to the development of the internet are:

Lawrence Roberts (1937-2018)

DARPA’s chief scientist who proposed and led ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) for years. He was the person who made two computers in different places communicate with each other. Thus, making him the first to connect two computers. Therefore, he himself calls him the “Founder of the Internet.”

Paul Baran (1926-2011)

An internet pioneer who invented “Packet Switching.” He was a constituent at RAND Corporation and was working on communications system development that could withstand the damage of a nuclear weapon. Initially, this process was called “message blocks,” however, as time went on, it was changed to “packet switching.”

Bob Kanh (1938-) and Vint Cerf (1943-)

American computer scientists who developed TCP/IP, which made way for the internet to come to life. They are considered the “Fathers of TCP or IP.” TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol, while IP stands for Internet Protocol. Moreover, they were also the ones who created the internet's architecture.

“When asked to explain my role in the creation of the internet, I generally use the example of a city. I helped to build the roads—the infrastructure that gets things from point A to point B.”

—Vint Cert, 2007

J.C.R. Licklider (1915-1990)

J.C.R. Licklider, or Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider, is an American scientist who is considered to be the first to envision a network of connected computers. He proposed the concept of the “intergalactic computer network” and is popular for his “man-computer symbiosis,” a paper in the 1960s that talked about convergence between men and computers.

Leonard Kleinrock (1934-)

He was the first person to use the first packet-switching network to send a message. As a matter of fact, he sent a message from a computer at UCLA to one at Stanford. Moreover, he is considered to be one of the founding fathers of the internet and has worked alongside Lawrence Roberts.

Tim Berners-Lee (1955-)

A British computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989 and was then considered the “Father of the Web.” Furthermore, Tim Berners-Lee also developed plenty of principles that up to this day are still utilized. These include HTML, HTTP, URLs, and web browsers.

According to him, “There was no “Eureka!” moment. It was not like the legendary apple falling on Newton’s head to demonstrate the concept of gravity. Inventing the World Wide Web involved my growing realisation that there was a power in arranging ideas in an unconstrained, weblike way. And that awareness came to me through precisely that kind of process. The Web arose as the answer to an open challenge, through the swirling together of influences, ideas, and realisations from many sides.”

 

DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF WEB

According to Awati (2023), web refers to all the public websites or pages that users can access on their local computers and other devices through the internet.

With that said, we have different versions of web. These webs could be in the form of web 1.0, web 2.0, or web 3.0.

What's the difference? Let's find out!

WEB 1.0

This is the “read-only web.” This is largely static and focuses on providing information. With this type of web, you can only read and procure information because of its limited interactivity.

 

WEB 2.0

This is the “participative social web.” This type of web allows an individual to become both the consumer and the content creator. With this, you can not only read, but you can also write and create. Compared to Web 1.0, this is more interactive. Examples of these are Facebook and YouTube.

 

WEB 3.0

This is the “read, write, execute web.” With web 3.0, you have the capability to read, write, and own. This was initially called the “Semantic Web,” which seeks to create more intelligent, connected, and open websites. Furthermore, this is the latest web iteration.