#Internet History
Dotcom Chronicles (3): You Can't Set Up a System of Bidirectional Links
In 1991 the hypertext experts said the Web's links went one way and could break at any time. Berners-Lee knew what they wanted; he had built the two-way kind himself in 1980. His letters on the mailing list in 1992 and 1993 explain why he built links that break anyway, and what he put in their place.
Dotcom Chronicles, Side Story 1: HTML Is Not SGML
In 1992 an engineer building documentation tools in Texas kept asking the mailing list one question: should a one-page list of tags become a standard that somebody validates? Dan Connolly's letters, from "HTML is not SMGL" to RFC 1866.
Dotcom Chronicles (2): I Was Just Hoping It Would Survive at SLAC
In December 1991 a free Web server came up on a library account at SLAC. Three and a half months in Louise Addis's inbox show who looked after it once the man who brought it went back to his own work.
Dotcom Chronicles (1): The Web Began with a Problem of Finding Things
In 1989, turnover at CERN kept separating documents from the people who could explain them. Starting from that problem, Berners-Lee wrote a proposal, a browser, and the first website, and in 1991 sent the invitation out.
Preface: I Once Worked in Netscape’s Building
A documentary shot revealed that my everyday office had once been Netscape’s. That discovery led me into the dotcom era—and toward questions worth revisiting in the age of AI and agents.