Create your first Web page – Part 1
by Bill at 8:17 amThis series of blog posts will take the absolute Internet newbie through the process of creating their first Web page. We’ll go over basic concepts, CSS, and even uploading. I’ve taught this to various ages, from 9 to 60 year old. You can do this.
Before we get started, let’s go back a few years.
Some internet history
In August of 1962, computer scientist J.C.R. Licklider (yup, that’s
him above) came up with a concept that he called the “Intergalactic Computer
Network.” A strange name, right? His idea was to connect computers through
phone lines across the country. The problem? These computers were all
different, and even used different languages.
Yet, Licklider figured it out, and connected computers in Santa Monica,
California, The University of California at Berkeley, and a computer at
MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This formed the basis
of what they called the ARPANET, what we now call the Internet.
The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (commonly called the Web) is a bit different from the
Internet. The World Wide Web was created in 1989 by Sir Tim
Berners-Lee (above), while working in Geneva, Switzerland. While the
Internet is a network of computers that are linked together, the World Wide
Web is a network of documents, photos, sounds and video that you can access
ON the Internet. With a web browser, a user can view web pages that may
contain text, images, and other multimedia, and then navigates between them
using hyperlinks.
Hyperlinks
Have you ever noticed how when you go to Google, Cartoon Network or MySpace,
and there’s a word on the web page that’s blue, and underlined? Sure you
have. We know these are links, and when you click on them, they take you
to different pages, or pictures, music .. whatever. These are officially
called hyperlinks. Hyperlinks don’t just have to be underlined words. Images
can be hyperlinks as well (click on Tim’s photo to go to his Wikipedia
page). Your phone number is sort of like a hyperlink when you think about
it. Someone punches in the right numbers, and somehow they get connected to
you. A web page is similar. If you type in
www.google.com, that name is actually tied in to a specific computer
number, or address … so it then takes you to some computers in, say,
California, and there’s your Google page!
Who is this “Sir Tim” guy?
July 26th, 2008 at 12:12 pmAl Gore created the internet.
Nice article indeed…
January 10th, 2009 at 11:13 pmThere is a great book about J.C. Licklider that I read called The Dream Machine. Highly recommended.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:03 pm