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- Useful Links
- Glossary
If you see this symbol in the text it is a Link to Glossary with more detailed information
Brief History of the WWW
The www is a small part of the Internet as we know it. It was invented by Tim Berners-Lee and is made up of a number of interconnected documents, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. The software for the www was released in 1991.
His vision was for a text only, hyperlinked community for academics but others had different ideas!. Soon people wanted to add pictures, have their own page designs and the full potential of the www was realised.
"The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information. Its universality is essential: the fact that a hypertext link can point to anything, be it personal, local or global, be it draft or highly polished. There was a second part of the dream, too, dependent on the Web being so generally used that it became a realistic mirror (or in fact the primary embodiment) of the ways in which we work and play and socialize. That was that once the state of our interactions was on line, we could then use computers to help us analyse it, make sense of what we are doing, where we individually fit in, and how we can better work together."
Tim Berners-Lee [http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ShortHistory.html]
Because web designers started to push the boundaries of what HTML could do there had to be some sort of agreement worldwide on how the future of web development would continue. What concerned Tim Berners-Lee and other people was that the language of the web should be open to all, so to stop any particular company taking over how the web developed (for example Microsoft!), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was formed in 1994. Since that time the W3C has worked towards its mission:
"To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web."
Source W3C website [http://www.w3.org/Consortium/]
The W3C oversees how the language of the web is written and the web standards that any one who writes a web page should all follow, making sure that any one can view a web page on any internet connected machine with any Browser any where in the world. Connected to the W3C is the WAI
initiative which deals with web accessibility.
We will introduce accessibility now and it will come up again as follow through the activities later.
Accessibility in web sites, What is it?
Everyone is different, so what is required is accessibility for all irrespective of ability or disability so that no one is excluded from web sites for whatever reason. A website should be usable as well as accessible. Usability means how well it has been designed for users needs and how easily people can interact with the site. More of this in the design principles page. If you follow web standards and usability recommendations you will be well on the way to achieving an accessible site.
Accessibility can mean what device a person is using to view the site (such as phone or PDA) but we are concerned with people with disabilities, which include visual impairments, colour blindness, people with reading difficulties, hearing impaired, manipulative difficulties and people with cognitive disabilities.
A big issue and an important one for schools as use of IT is increasing. If you consider certain factors when you construct your site, your pages pass the W3C standards the website should have passed to at least Level 1 of the WAI accessibility standards consisting of 3 levels from 1 to 3 .
The subject is expanded on the accessibility page later in the course.
It is a lot to take in but it can be achieved with good design practices and that little bit extra when building your website.
Anyone can construct a web page using something as simple as Notepad, which you will be doing in the next section.
Next section Introduction to HTML >>
