Manifestos & announcements · 1991
WorldWideWeb: the announcement on alt.hypertext
alt.hypertext · 6 August 1991
- Source
- w3.org
- Retrieved
- 27 September 2026
- License
- W3C Document License
- Rights holder
- Tim Berners-Lee, 1991
- Language
- English
Permission to copy, and distribute the contents of this document, or the W3C document from which this statement is linked, in any medium for any purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted, provided that you include the following on ALL copies of the document, or portions thereof, that you use: A link or URL to the original W3C document. The pre-existing copyright notice of the original author, or if it doesn’t exist, a notice (hypertext is preferred, but a textual representation is permitted) of the form: “Copyright © [$date-of-document] World Wide Web Consortium. https://www.w3.org/copyright/document-license-2023/” If it exists, the STATUS of the W3C document.
About this edition and its rights
Edition
The two articles that Tim Berners-Lee posted to alt.hypertext on 6 August 1991, as archived in plain text on w3.org and linked from https://www.w3.org/History.html: art-6484.txt (“Re: Qualifiers on Hypertext links...”, which https://web30.web.cern.ch/web-history.html calls the first announcement) and art-6487.txt (“WorldWideWeb: Summary”). They are reproduced line for line in a monospaced font, headers and signatures included, tabs at eight columns; only the line ends (CR LF) and the blank lines at the end of each file are dropped. The kicker, the title, the author line and the byline come from the headers and signatures of the posts.
Rights
License notice: “Permission to copy, and distribute the contents of this document, or the W3C document from which this statement is linked, in any medium for any purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted, provided that you include the following on ALL copies of the document, or portions thereof, that you use: A link or URL to the original W3C document. The pre-existing copyright notice of the original author, or if it doesn’t exist, a notice (hypertext is preferred, but a textual representation is permitted) of the form: “Copyright © [$date-of-document] World Wide Web Consortium. https://www.w3.org/copyright/document-license-2023/” If it exists, the STATUS of the W3C document.”
W3C document license, https://www.w3.org/copyright/document-license-2023/, which opens with “Public documents on the W3C site are provided by the copyright holders under the following license.”; the W3C intellectual rights page, https://www.w3.org/copyright/intellectual-rights/, adds “Unless otherwise stated, documents on the W3C site are published under the W3C document license.” The two files state nothing else and carry no copyright notice of their own, so the footer gives the notice in the form the license prescribes, with the URLs of both documents; they have no STATUS. The license grants no right to modify them, and they are reproduced unchanged.
From: timbl@info .cern.ch (Tim Berners-Lee) Newsgroups: alt.hypertext Subject: Re: Qualifiers on Hypertext links... Message-ID: <6484@cernvax.cern.ch> Date: 6 Aug 91 14:56:20 GMT References: <1991Aug2.115241@ardor.enet.dec.com> Sender: news@cernvax.cern.ch Lines: 52 In article <1991Aug2.115241@ardor.enet.dec.com> kannan@ardor.enet.dec.com (Nari Kannan) writes: > > Is anyone reading this newsgroup aware of research or development efforts in > the > following areas: > > 1. Hypertext links enabling retrieval from multiple heterogeneous sources of > information? The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow links to be made to any information anywhere. The address format includes an access method (=namespace), and for most name spaces a hostname and some sort of path. We have a prototype hypertext editor for the NeXT, and a browser for line mode terminals which runs on almost anything. These can access files either locally, NFS mounted, or via anonymous FTP. They can also go out using a simple protocol (HTTP) to a server which interprets some other data and returns equivalent hypertext files. For example, we have a server running on our mainframe (http://cernvm.cern.ch/FIND in WWW syntax) which makes all the CERN computer center documentation available. The HTTP protocol allows for a keyword search on an index, which generates a list of matching documents as annother virtual hypertext document. If you're interested in using the code, mail me. It's very prototype, but available by anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch. It's copyright CERN but free distribution and use is not normally a problem. The NeXTstep editor can also browse news. If you are using it to read this, then click on this: <http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html> to find out more about the project. We haven't put the news access into the line mode browser yet. We also have code for a hypertext server. You can use this to make files available (like anonymous FTP but faster because it only uses one connection). You can also hack it to take a hypertext address and generate a virtual hypertext document from any other data you have - database, live data etc. It's just a question of generating plain text or SGML (ugh! but standard) mark-up on the fly. The browsers then parse it on the fly. The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data, news, and documentation. We are very interested in spreading the web to other areas, and having gateway servers for other data. Collaborators welcome! I'll post a short summary as a separate article. Tim Berners-Lee timbl@info.cern.ch World Wide Web project Tel: +41(22)767 3755 CERN Fax: +41(22)767 7155 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland (usual disclaimer)
From: timbl@info .cern.ch (Tim Berners-Lee)
Newsgroups: alt.hypertext
Subject: WorldWideWeb: Summary
Keywords: heterogeneous hypertext, web, source, protocol, index, information retrieval
Message-ID: <6487@cernvax.cern.ch>
Date: 6 Aug 91 16:00:12 GMT
References: <6484@cernvax.cern.ch>
Sender: news@cernvax.cern.ch
Lines: 84
In article <6484@cernvax.cern.ch> I promised to post a short summary of the
WorldWideWeb project. Mail me with any queries.
WorldWideWeb - Executive Summary
The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to
make an easy but powerful global information system.
The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should
be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information sharing within
internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of information by
support groups.
Reader view
The WWW world consists of documents, and links. Indexes are special documents
which, rather than being read, may be searched. The result of such a search is
another ("virtual") document containing links to the documents found. A simple
protocol ("HTTP") is used to allow a browser program to request a keyword
search by a remote information server.
The web contains documents in many formats. Those documents which are
hypertext, (real or virtual) contain links to other documents, or places
within documents. All documents, whether real, virtual or indexes, look similar
to the reader and are contained within the same addressing scheme.
To follow a link, a reader clicks with a mouse (or types in a number if he or
she has no mouse). To search and index, a reader gives keywords (or other
search criteria). These are the only operations necessary to access the entire
world of data.
Information provider view
The WWW browsers can access many existing data systems via existing protocols
(FTP, NNTP) or via HTTP and a gateway. In this way, the critical mass of data
is quickly exceeded, and the increasing use of the system by readers and
information suppliers encourage each other.
Making a web is as simple as writing a few SGML files which point to your
existing data. Making it public involves running the FTP or HTTP daemon, and
making at least one link into your web from another. In fact, any file
available by anonymous FTP can be immediately linked into a web. The very small
start-up effort is designed to allow small contributions. At the other end of
the scale, large information providers may provide an HTTP server with full
text or keyword indexing.
The WWW model gets over the frustrating incompatibilities of data format
between suppliers and reader by allowing negotiation of format between a smart
browser and a smart server. This should provide a basis for extension into
multimedia, and allow those who share application standards to make full use of
them across the web.
This summary does not describe the many exciting possibilities opened up by the
WWW project, such as efficient document caching. the reduction of redundant
out-of-date copies, and the use of knowledge daemons. There is more
information in the online project documentation, including some background on
hypertext and many technical notes.
Try it
A prototype (very alpha test) simple line mode browser is currently available
in source form from node info.cern.ch [currently 128.141.201.74] as
/pub/WWW/WWWLineMode_0.9.tar.Z.
Also available is a hypertext editor for the NeXT using the NeXTStep graphical
user interface, and a skeleton server daemon.
Documentation is readable using www (Plain text of the instalation instructions
is included in the tar file!). Document
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
is as good a place to start as any. Note these coordinates may change with
later releases.
_________________________________________________________________
Tim Berners-Lee Tel: +41(22)767 3755
WorldWideWeb project Fax: +41(22)767 7155
C.E.R.N. email: tbl@cernvax.cern.ch
1211 Geneva 23
Switzerland