A Love Letter to HTML, a keynote at jQuery UK

25 years ago, the web was started as an idea for how to organise communication between a diverse group of people on a wide variety of devices. At the core, HTML holds it all together. Why did HTML and the web grow to dominate all other hypertext systems that came before, and go on to revolutionise human interaction? What is it about HTML that we should remember and respect, even as the web platform grows and changes?

Presented at jQuery UK, 16 May, 2014, in Oxford, England.
Read the audience reaction: https://storify.com/jensimmons/jquery-uk-talk

Transcript

1. A Love Letter to HTML Jen Simmons The Web Ahead
4. HyperText
5. Douglas Engelbart “The Mother of All Demos” Dec 1968
11. The Computer Chronicles “HyperCard Mania!” 1987
12. Internet
13. WWW =! Internet
17. CompuServ The Source Delphi GEnie AppleLink eWorld America OnLine
19. FTP BBS eMail Usenet LISTSERV IRC Gopher 1971 1973 1973 1979 1986 1988 1991
25. photo by Anna Pantelia /CERN. Used with permission.
30. Proportion of FTP, web (HTTP), Gopher, News (NNTP), Mail (SMTP), Telnet, IRC and DNS traffic on the NSFNET backbone 1992-1995 Journal of the American Society for Information Science (JASIS), November, Vol. 48, No. 11. Brian R. Gaines, Lee Li-Jen Chen and Mildred L. G. Shaw, Knowledge Science Institute, University of Calgary
32. Why?
33. Flexible
34. “I would have to create a system with common rules that would be acceptable to everyone. This meant as close as possible to no rules at all. This notion seemed impossible until I realized that the diversity of different computer systems and networks could be a rich resource — something to be represented, not a problem to be eradicated.” — Tim Berners-Lee
35. No Central Authority
36. No Permission Needed
37. No Central Directory
38. One-way Linking
39. Universal
40. Designed to Reduce Barriers to Entry
41. Simple
42. Forgiving
43. Declarative
44. Remarkable
45. “The magic of the web is getting to know other people, really know them, who you would otherwise never have had the chance to meet.” — Carolyn Wood
47. Thanks! Jen Simmons @jensimmons The Web Ahead 5by5.tv/webahead