World Wide Web
The World Wide Web, also known as the WWW and the Web, is an information space where documents and other web resources are identified by Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), interlinked by hypertext links, and accessible via the Internet. English scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He wrote the first web browser in 1990 while employed at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. The browser was released outside CERN in 1991, first to other research institutions starting in January 1991 and to the general public on the Internet in August 1991.
World Wide What?
The film begins in 1989 at the offices of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN, where Tim Berners Lee is working on his aspirations for the World Wide Web. He reflects to himself in private that this project could go on to promote "world peace" and also help people "share pictures of kittens". Upon leaving his office, Stephen Fry describes how a short-sighted assistant could have changed the course of humanity if she had accidentally put Tim Berners Lee's research in a waste paper basket. The film then goes on to depict a succession of sketches played out by global tech entrepreneurs in which they are forced to carry out analogue versions of their digital jobs. In order of appearance:The film then returns to CERN to find Tim Berners Lee desperately looking for his research for creating the World Wide Web. As he becomes more and more distressed, his assistant walks through the door holding the papers stating that she had read them overnight. When Tim Berners Lee asks her if she thinks the research stands a chance in working, she ponders "50/50", much to his disappointment.