I heard a number of stories about the Web’s past in San Francisco last week and that made me realize how little most of us really know about the web’s history. Many of us working on the web today weren’t around for the early days. And it’s so easy to forget how much the web has changed over the years, even when you have been around for those years!
Personally, I really enjoy stories of the early days of the Web. Stories about the battles that were won, the trends that came and went, and the people behind them all. The Web has such an interesting history.
Tweeting about this lead to me getting a nice list of some talks and podcasts that cover the history of the Web. So if you’re in the mood for a little web history too, here are a few places to look.
Stories of the Web’s past:
The Web Behind Podcast Series
Jen Simmons and Eric Meyer did a special series for The Web Ahead podcast that look to the past instead of the future. I listened to the whole series back when it was first released and it’s full of great stories and info.
Dave Shea’s A Brief History of Web Design talk
This talk from Beyond Tellerrand 2015 covers a timeline of the early web and the first web sites. Dave also talks about origins of CSS Zen Garden and why he created it.
Jen Simmons’ A Love Letter to HTML
In this talk from 2014 Jen Simmons covers how HTML came to be what we know it as today.
Jeremy Keith’s < A >
Jeremy Keith talks about the early days of the internet and the World Wide Web at CSS Day 2016.
Rachel Andrew’s Knowing it All slides
This talk isn’t exclusively about web history, but in telling the story of her career, Rachel Andrew covers some key points of web history.
If you know of any other talks or podcasts on the history of the web, link them in the comments. I’d love to have a longer list!
