The World Wide Web blows out 30 candles and Google's Doodle pays tribute to it.
On March 12, 1989, Tim Berners Lee presented a paper at the Cern in Geneva that represented the theoretical basis of the Web, explaining the possibility of linking together multiple texts and words in many computers around the world.
Since then think how many changes! From Berns Lee's theory, which was looked upon with suspicion by some, we have been catapulted online.
In this virtual way we have learned to scan our daily life, to define our self, using technologies to take advantage of all the possibilities it offers us. In the Word Wide Web we have learned to communicate, to inform ourselves, to work, to invent.
To think that when the British physicist, then 34, presented to his supervisor at Cern in Geneva the paper Information Management: a Proposal to make the distribution of scientific data easier among those in the field, the proposal was evaluated as "vague, but interesting."
Tim Berners,in his open letter to users, on the World Wide Web Foundation website, wanted to reflect above all on the approach we need to take to build a better Web that serves all humanity.
Because while the Web has created opportunities, given a voice to marginalized groups, and simplified our daily lives, it has also seen the proliferation of scammers, those who have misused it, fomenting hatred-think, for example, of the spread of fake news.
"Innovation and cooperation must not stop: it is our journey from digital adolescence to a more mature, responsible and inclusive future. It is a time to celebrate how far we have come," writes Tim Berners-Lee, but also an opportunity to reflect on how far we still have to go.
The Web has become a public square, a library, a doctor's office, a store, a school, a design studio, an office, a movie theater, a bank, and much more. Obviously with each new feature, each new website, the gap between those who are online and those who are not increases, it is imperative to make the Web available to everyone.
The struggle for the web is one of the most important causes of our time. Today half of the world is online. It is more urgent than ever to ensure that the other half is not left behind, offline, and that everyone contributes to a web that promotes equality, opportunity, and creativity."