CERN to Recreate First Webpage

Posted on April 30, 2013

CERN is planning to recreate the first webpage and first URL. Sir Tim Berners-Lee helped developed the web and the first website while he worked at CERN. CERN have posted details about the project here.

For a start we would like to restore the first URL - put back the files that were there at their earliest possible iterations. Then we will look at the first web servers at CERN and see what assets from them we can preserve and share. We will also sift through documentation and try to restore machine names and IP addresses to their original state. Beyond this we want to make http://info.cern.ch - the first web address - a destination that reflects the story of the beginnings of the web for the benefit of future generations.

Dan Noyes, the web manager for CERN's communication group, told BBC News, "I want my children to be able to understand the significance of this point in time: the web is already so ubiquitous - so, well, normal - that one risks failing to see how fundamentally it has changed. We are in a unique moment where we can still switch on the first web server and experience it. We want to document and preserve that."

BBC News says CERN not only wants to preserve the first website and URL, but the hardware and software used to create it and view it. This includes a NeXT computer (pictured below) used by Berners-Lee and a browser created by Nicola Pellow. It is certainly an important piece of history that is worth of preservation.

INTERNET