I Do Remember It Well

Robert's Logo

Today the Badische Zeitung published a column informing me that 20 years ago, on April 30, 1993, the World Wide Web was baptized as such at CERN.

Yes, it is well known that at the place where I worked, Tim Berners-Lee, together with Robert Cailliau, not only developed the idea of a global communication platform but, as one of my colleagues from SLAC once formulated, "They gave it to the world."

The exact date mentioned above was a surprise to me, for those of us working at CERN had a sliding start by first getting an e-mail service with which we could communicate online with our American colleagues. Later we were introduced to the Web, and our first browser was Mosaic which was soon replaced by Netscape, developed in the States.

Windows 95: Wikipedia on Netscape

My contact person in those pioneer days was Robert, the charming Belgian with whom I, a simple user, often chatted over a cup of coffee. Neither of us imagined the impact the World Wide Web would have.

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