[ih] WWW date?

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: "Phill Gross" <PGross at PGross.net>

    > Various sources show either 1989 or 1991 as the date for the "birth of
    > the web". Apparently Tim Berners-Lee supports the 1989 date.

Well, I expect it depends on what you mean by "birth of the web"! Do you mean
"first mention of the idea", "first exerimental transfers inside CERN",
"first actual service usage inside CERN", "first public release of web software
by CERN", etc, etc!

    > Does anyone have more of the story? Does the 1991 date have any
    > significance (eg, some major release date) or is it simply wrong.

According to:

  http://press.web.cern.ch/public/Content/Chapters/AboutCERN/Achievements/WorldWideWeb/WebHistory/WebHistory-en.html

it was first proposed in 1989, and the first prototype software was running by
the end of 1990. The first release of that code outside CERN came in 1991.

It's hard to realize now, but the early growth of the web was quite slow.
According to:

  http://www.mit.edu/people/mkgray/growth/

As of June, 1993 there were only 130 Web sites! The first release of MOSAIC
was only in early 1993, as well.

	Noel