Shape Of The Web
Henri Helvetica at JSCamp 2019
Somewhere on a university campus in the US midwest, a 20 some year old student was earning minimum-wage, writing code in the middle of the night that would forever change the world. Until 1992, the internet was largely textual, reserved almost exclusively to academia. The sea change was a browser called: Mosaic. A young engineer co-authored Mosaic and in 1993 it became the 1st consumer-friendly browser, described once as the “gateway to the riches of the internet”. 25 years later, these same internet riches have become richer content, browsing has become as quotidian as a cup of coffee though not without a touch of tumult. “The Shape Of The Web” is about both accomplishments and challenges that lay in past, present and future of the web, its technologies employed and its employed technologists.