I came across this video on Gizmodo today, showing in 1:30 a fast-forward of Google’s timeline from start to finish. In 1 minute 30 seconds you can only squeeze so much content to display, but its a job well done showing how slowly (or quickly) Google has evolved. The video greatly reminded me of our class wiki project of the 25th street plaza, and how each one in the class had a unique way of finding/building/expressing something as well as having unique computer skills to construct a uniform page that appears much more than just the sum of little parts and pieces.
link to video:
http://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-the-web-was-built-according-to-google-506808278
Very interesting video. What I find funny is that If i had watched this video a few months ago I would have been unaware of many of the founding companies of the Internet. Not just from the information we learned in this course but what it prompted me to explore on my own. I now know at least a dozen companies who’s impact to the Internet and the creating and current state of the Web that I did not know before. I still am not sure how much of the early Internet I really understand. I wish I had been more involved/ interested as a child and could have taken part or at least been a little more knowledgeable. I preferred to watch television when I could have been creating something. I am still not sure how much or little I really know, in part because we don’t know how little we actually know until we learn something. Strange philosophical interpretation but thats what i’ve got.
In my recent exploration about the early beginning of the Internet I found the man whom we credit with the invention of the World Wide Web. Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor/ creator of the World Wide Web. What I considered to be an incredible and unimaginable thing. As little as I understand about it today I could not imagine being able to create it. What disturbed and shocked me was how little money he made and is currently worth. When in todays world where posting pictures is worth a billion dollars (Instagram) and people like Mark Zuckerberg can go from nothing to one of the wealthiest people on the planet in a matter of a few short years. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who I assume was knighted as a result of this invention is only worth a measly 50 million. I actually feel quite sorry for him but I guess we learn it is not always the inventions we create but how we can market something that is a better prediction of profitability.