Screenshots of the first website only hint at the internet’s now near-universal adaptability and usage, and just over two decades later it is almost impossible to imagine daily life, let alone birding, without it.
83 : First website
1991
Screenshots of the first website only hint at the internet’s now near-universal adaptability and usage, and just over two decades later it is almost impossible to imagine daily life, let alone birding, without it.
There is an argument that, without the internet, a personal computer is little more than a glorified calculator and word processor – it is as a communication device that it really comes into its own, and in this interlinked capacity the machines have revolutionised birding as much as any other special interest.
At its most basic, the internet is a global network of networks – a system which interconnects millions of different private, commercial and governmental computer networks. Its roots stretch back to the early 1960s, when researchers first attempted to synthesise digital messaging formats and rules for the exchange of messages. The first protocols for ‘internetworking’ were developed by British computer scientist Donald Davies in the early 1970s.
The decommissioning of the ARPANET – the first collaborative ‘packet switching’ program that connected different computer systems – and consequent removal of commercial restrictions on linking networks enabled near instant communications between users, both individually and en masse.
The real revolution in birding terms has come with the huge amounts of free information and storage available online, enabling use and sharing of data and images from the field and between observers at home and at work. Remote and hands-on access to information is equally possible, and observers can exchange news and comments via social media like forums, blogs and networking sites, and exchange text messages with ease.
The most personal way of reporting sightings and observations has been through the creation of an individual website, though recently the immediacy and convenience of a blog (originally ‘web log’) has been the presentation method of choice for most. Websites are also data collection points for large-scale citizen science projects such as the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch and Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird project (see pages 188–189), as well as specialist bird image resources such as the 250,000-plus photos now archived on BirdGuides.com. Importantly, the web has provided online shop-fronts for a wide range of birding businesses including publishers, bird news services, manufacturers, writers, artists and ID gurus, all presenting their solid and abstract wares in a fast, click-smart market-place.
All this has been made possible by the development of the World Wide Web, conceived by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, and then provided free for all in 1993. It was established to manage information on the already interlinked computer systems of the internet, neatly bracketing the launch of the first website in 1991.
The ability of individuals to create their own personal, interactive and viewable online space within minutes is one of the many revolutions of the internet, and the full repercussions are probably still some way off being felt.