What is the world wide web? - Twila Camp

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The world wide web is used every day by millions of people for everything from checking the weather to sharing cat videos. But what is it exactly? Twila Camp describes this interconnected information system as a virtual city that everyone owns and explains how it's organized in a way that mimics our brain's natural way of thinking.

Lesson by Twila Camp, animation by Flaming Medusa Studios Inc.

The World Wide Web,

where you're likely watching this video,

is used by millions of people every day

for everything from

checking the weather,

ordering food,

and chatting with friends

to raising funds,

sharing news,

or starting revolutions.

We use it from our computers, our phones, even our cars.

It's just there,

all around us, all the time.

But what is it exactly?

Well first of all, the World Wide Web is not the Internet,

even though the terms are often used interchangeably.

The Internet is simply the way computers connect to each other

in order to share information.

When the Internet first emerged,

computers actually made direct calls to each other.

Today, networks are all around us,

so computers can communicate seamlessly.

The communication enabled through the Internet

has many uses,

such as email, file transfer, and conferencing.

But the most common use

is accessing the World Wide Web.

Think of the Web as a bunch of skyscrapers,

each representing a web server,

a computer always connected to the Internet,

specifically designed to store information and share it.

When someone starts a website,

they are renting a room in this skyscraper,

filling it with information

and linking that information together

in an organized way for others to access.

The people who own these skyscrapers

and rent space in them

are called web hosts,

but anyone can set up a web server

with the right equipment a bit of know-how.

There's another part to having a website,

without which we would be lost in the city

with no way of finding what we need.

This is the website address,

which consists of domain names.

Just like with a real life address,

a website address lets you get where you want to go.

The information stored in the websites

is in web languages,

such as HTML and JavaScript.

When we find the website we're looking for,

our web browser is able to take all the code on the site

and turn it into words, graphics, and videos.

We don't need to know any special computer languages

because the web browser creates a graphic interface for us.

So, in a lot of ways,

the World Wide Web is a big virtual city

where we communicate with each other

in web languages,

with browsers acting as our translators.

And just like no one owns a city,

no one owns the Web;

it belongs to all of us.

Anyone can move in and set up shop.

We might have to pay an Internet service provider

to gain access,

a hosting company to rent web space,

or a registrar to reserve our web address.

Like utility companies in a city,

these companies provide crucial services,

but in the end,

not even they own the Web.

But what really makes the Web so special

lies in its very name.

Prior to the Web,

we used to consume most information

in a linear fashion.

In a book or newspaper article,

each sentence was read from beginning to end,

page by page,

in a straight line until you reached the end.

But that isn't how our brains actually work.

Each of our thoughts is linked to other thoughts,

memories, and emotions

in a loose interconnected network, like a web.

Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web,

understood that we needed a way to organize information

that mirrored this natural arrangement.

And the Web accomplishes this through hyperlinks.

By linking several pages within a website

or even redirecting you to other websites

to expand on information or ideas immediately

as you encounter them,

hyperlinks allow the Web

to operate along the same lines as our thought patterns.

The Web is so much a part of our lives

because in content and structure,

it reflects both the wider society

and our individual minds.

And it connects those minds

across all boundaries,

not only enthnicity, gender, and age

but even time and space.