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1989, A CERN Memo
In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted a groundbreaking proposal to his supervisor at CERN. He envisioned "a distributed system for information sharing among scholars worldwide," a concept that aimed to revolutionize how researchers accessed and exchanged data across institutions. His supervisor's response, a handwritten note on the document, famously read: "Vague, but exciting." This concise, yet remarkably insightful, comment on Berners-Lee's initial blueprint would ultimately signify the very genesis of the internet, laying the groundwork for a global information network that would profoundly reshape human interaction and knowledge dissemination.
1991, The First Webpage
Two years later, in 1991, Berners-Lee brought his vision to life. Working on a NeXT computer, he developed the very first website, hosted at info.cern.ch. The foundational language for this new medium, HTML 1.0, was remarkably simple, comprising a mere 18 tags. The content of this inaugural webpage served as a comprehensive explanation, detailing "What is the WorldWideWeb project" and outlining its purpose and functionality to a nascent audience. This marked a pivotal moment in the development of global information sharing.
April 30, 1993 — A Crucial Decision
A truly pivotal moment arrived on April 30, 1993. On this date, CERN made the extraordinary decision to release all core World Wide Web technologies – including HTML, HTTP, and the web browser itself – into the public domain, free for anyone to use. This act of open access was profoundly significant. Had these fundamental technologies been patented or commercialized, the internet could have easily evolved into a proprietary, closed network, controlled by a single entity. Instead, this singular, far-reaching decision fostered unprecedented innovation and growth, a choice that, three decades later, is estimated to have contributed a remarkable 20% to the global GDP.
Sharing Through Hanja
The concept of sharing is deeply embedded in language, as illustrated by the Hanja character "分 (bun)." This character is visually composed of 八 (pal), signifying "to divide," and 刀 (do), representing a "knife." Together, they convey the meaning "to divide and give with a knife." This fundamental character is found in various Korean terms related to sharing, such as 분담 (bundam), meaning the sharing of responsibility, 분배 (bunbae), referring to distribution, and 나눔 (nanum), which broadly means sharing. The act of sharing, particularly in the realm of technology, can be considered one of humanity's greatest inventions, a principle powerfully exemplified by the open and accessible nature of HTML.
