In March 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, still at CERN, wrote a paper entitled “A Proposal on Information Management: A Proposal), describing the original idea for the World Wide Web. It was exactly 30 years ago today that Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s memo revolutionised global communication.

We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Web and the 25th anniversary of the W3C in a few months! Since its inception, the W3C has been committed to the social mission of realizing the full potential of the World Wide Web by developing open standards and guidelines to promote innovative applications, industry development and the free flow of information and ideas. The W3C and its community remain committed to the core values of building an open Web and continue to promote a Web vision and standards that are innovative, neutral and interoperable, bringing together technical experts from around the world to work together to ensure that Web builds are open, accessible, secure and international.

Today, we celebrate the Web as: * global, international, truly “worldwide” * accessible to all devices, all kinds of information, all languages * accessible to people with disabilities * Free to use open standards based on royalty-free licenses * powerful: The open Web platform makes the Web page a powerful tool in its own right * constantly innovating as the business evolves * constantly improving standards, increasing user satisfaction, and reducing costs

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, when asked what work he was most proud of at the W3C (watch the interview below)

We would like to thank Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the W3C director, for inventing the Web and for his tireless efforts to make it open, usable, international and accessible. We are also grateful to the WORLD Wide W3C membership and community for working together to shape the future of the Web and make THE W3C a world platform for innovation, innovation, and collaboration. We expect that through the continuous construction of the Web, one day in the future, anyone can enjoy the convenience brought by the Web anywhere and on any device.

“The W3C was founded 25 years ago by Sir Tim Berners-Lee to ‘lead the Web to its full potential’,” said Dr. Jeff Jaffe, CEO of the W3C, in a statement marking the Web’s 30th anniversary. Looking at the dramatic changes the Web has made to our lives, we are honored that members of the W3C community have played an important role in this process. At the same time, we are looking forward to the future society full of limitless innovation in front of us.”

At Web@30, organized in conjunction with the Web Foundation and W3C, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau will join industry colleagues and field experts to discuss past, present and future challenges and opportunities for technological innovation. The event will be broadcast on webcast.web.cern.ch, welcome to follow!

If you have any feelings about the 30th anniversary of the Web, feel free to join us, leave a comment on Twitter #Web30 or @w3c China micro blog, or post your own blog to share your story with the Web!

 

This post was adapted from a blog post by Coralie Mercier, DIRECTOR of global communications at W3C.