The Birth of the Internet

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the last 30 years, the internet has utterly changed the world in which we live and is now as vital as electricity in our daily lives. August 6, 1991, is the date given when the first website went live. Published by Tim Berners Lee at CERN it was a moment that would change the world but, as you'll hear in this podcast, that date is in fact not true. To explain what really happened and explore the history of the world wide web, how it works and the vitally important geopolitical issues that surround it Dan is joined by Dame Wendy Hall. Wendy is Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton and has recently published Four Internets: Data, Geopolitics, and the Governance of Cyberspace. Wendy was very much involved in the 1990s as the web was being created and knows the pioneers who launched this groundbreaking technology so is the perfect guest to help remember the birth of the internet.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone, welcome to Downsnow's History. This is the world's best history podcast,
0:05.6	an assertion with absolutely no basis in fact at all. There is also, instead, of my personal
0:13.1	bias. But today on the podcast, this is going to blow your mind. This is why I think it's
0:16.4	the best history podcast. Today on the podcast, when we're talking about the world wide web,
0:20.3	you might have used it. In fact, you know what? You've definitely used it if you listen
0:23.8	to this podcast. The 6th of August 1991 is the date given on the web sites, on your newsletter
0:30.4	that comes around, on the social media. The 6th of August 1991 is given as the date
0:36.9	the first website went live. Info.Surn.ch. The web's inventor Tim Bernersley created that website.
0:46.0	But as you can hear in this podcast, that's not entirely true. It's not true at all, I'm afraid.
0:50.4	It is 30 years since that website went live, but it wasn't actually on the 6th of August. On this
0:57.2	podcast, I've got Dame Wendy Hall. She's the Regis Professor of Computer Science at the University
1:02.9	of Southampton. She's the Executive Director of the Web Science Institute. She is the Oracle
1:09.6	of web history. I've been trying to get her on this podcast for years and eventually thank
1:13.8	goodness she has said yes. She's held every important position that matters. She's chair of the
1:20.5	Adelaublase Institute. She was co-chair of the UK Government's artificial intelligence review.
1:26.7	She was there in the 1990s when the web was being invented. She knows the players and she's written
1:32.2	the histories. It's a huge, huge honor to have her on the show on this sort of anniversary.
1:39.3	If you wish to listen to some of our other anniversaries, come and take a fast actually
1:42.4	anniversaries. We had the anniversary outbreak of the First World War. They lost people
1:46.0	listened to that episode. Thank you for all of your feedback. People said I was like the British
1:49.9	Dan Carlin, which I will take as a compliment, I think. If you want to listen to other shows,
1:54.9	please go and subscribe. It is historyhit.tv. Subscribe again a month for free and you get access
	...

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