WEB HISTORY DAY:
PIONEERING SOFTWARE AND SITES

6th International World Wide Web Conference
Santa Clara Convention Center
Santa Clara, California
April 11th, 1997

Know the past. Invent the future.

Thanks to everyone who made History Day happen! This page will remain here for - what else? - historical purposes.

Program * Abstracts * Exhibit

The World Wide Web History Project (www.webhistory.org) is honored to announce that it has been asked to organize a History Day on the last day of the Sixth International World-Wide Web Conference, to be held in Santa Clara, California, in the Santa Clara Convention Center.

In keeping with the day's theme, "Pioneering Software and Sites", pioneers of the Web and hypermedia will demonstrate historic systems and Web sites, using original hardware where possible. We hope a demo will be worth a thousand words! Our goals are:

To celebrate the true roots of the Web, which remain largely unknown

To expose the current generation of Web developers to the full range of ideas and tools which have been developed in the past, in the hope of making the Web a better tool for all of us

What Web-like systems have been invented and what happened to them? Who made these systems and what do their inventors think about the Web today? How has the Web changed business, education, science? What has people's reactions been to the growth and evolution of the Web? What lessons can we learn from the past?

For the first time ever, hypertext pioneer Ted Nelson addresses an audience of contemporary Web developers. For the first time, Doug Englebart demonstrates his 1960's AUGMENT hypermedia system at a Web conference. For the first time, the "Holy Trinity" of hypertext - Ted Nelson, Doug Engelbart, and Andy Van Dam - present their views on the state of things to today's Web generation. What was the first browser to run applets? To support images? Who made the blink tag? Come to History Day (an historic event in itself) and find out!

Current Events and Speakers

We've got a full day with some of the most influential people in hypermedia - Ted Nelson, Doug Engelbart, Andy Van Dam, Tim Berners-Lee, and Brewster Kahle, just to name a few of many. Check out our current program or browse the list of presentation abstracts.

The History Day Exhibit

All week long, over 20 computers will be running historical software and showing pioneering Web sites. See (and use) the first Web browser ever written, on the original NeXT computer it was written on. Play with AUGMENT, Doug Engelbart's original hypermedia software. See what the first U.S. Web site looked like. Experience GNN, CommerceNet, and the first VRML browsers, as well as the latest offerings from Netscape and Microsoft. At selected times throughout the conference, the original developers themselves will give demonstrations of their creations to the public.

View the currently planned exhibit here!

If you would like to volunteer to become a Web History curator and guide for this exhibit, please contact Kevin Hughes at kevinh@webhistory.org or fill out the form below.

Registering for History Day

First, we encourage you to visit the main WWW6 conference site and register for the full conference! You will have free access to History Day and the History Day exhibit, including lunch on Friday with Doug Engelbart. You will not need to register for Developer's Day to attend History Day.

You can also register for History Day and the exhibit only on Friday for $100 at the door (Santa Clara Convention Center box office). There is no preregistration for the event.

Should you have any questions about History Day, please send email to the History Day co-chairs Kevin Hughes (kevinh@webhistory.org) and Marc Weber (marc@webhistory.org).

© 2003 The World Wide Web History Project and Arcady Press