WEB101 Week 3: Reflection

So this week we discussed what the Web is... Where it began, how it has evolved over the last 50 years. Yes 50 years. It's hard to believe that the concept of the web has been around since the 1960 with the introduction of the the first hyper text document by Doug Engelbart. Read more about Engelbart's discoveries at http://sloan.stanford.edu/mousesite/1968Demo.html
But not until the late 1980s early 1990s did the web become the interest of the public... Thanks to the developers of Mosaic... the 1st web browser application that was available "free" to the public. Imagine if these developers never released their web browser to the public domain and web browsers remained "commercial"? Would the internet have developed into what it is today? Would it be as popular as it has become? My guess would be that we wouldn't have been bothered to use this tool and it would of only been used for research purposes and the general public would not of seen it as a useful tool.
I did see on the "Today" on channel 9 this week a segment they had on "What the internet has killed". Looking back at the early 80s where in every household there was a book shelf full of Encyclopedia Britannica's, which was where anything about everything was to be found. I remember using these books for all my assignments during my school years. But now all we need to do is turn on your computer, get onto the Web and the world of information is at your fingertips, and no longer requiring a large amount of space to be stored.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  It poses the question on what you think the web will also kill in the future. You can rent Movies, download MP3 music, which could kill the video and music stores, you can send letters instantly at no cost via email as apposed to sending a letter via the postal system, you can shop online for your weekly groceries and have them delivered to your door, could this abolish a physical presence of a supermarket? You can do all you banking online from transferring money, to paying bills, without leaving the comfort of your living room.
I also leave this week with another question... will we become so antisocial that we wont leave our homes because we have everything we need at the click of a button? From cyber friendships on Facebook, to online shopping and virtual offices... could this destroy human nature as we know it?