The World Wide Web turned 21 this year, after a troubled childhood and unruly teenage years. A full generation of technology users now have no memory of a time before the Web. To many Web users, especially of that younger generation, the Web and the Internet itself are inseparable if not outright synonymous. That is especially true in South Africa, where our Internet connectivity is very nearly the same age as the Web - there was only a very short period in which South Africa had access to the ‘net before the Web started its inexorable growth across the globe.

It is hard to imagine an Internet without Web browsers, just as it is hard to imagine a modern data network without TCP/IP or many other fundamental components. But the fact is many of the protocols and standards we use were once hotly contested, and in many cases have become standards despite shortcomings or better alternatives. Over time, standards like TCP/IP and HTTP have become compressed into strata – layers of bedrock upon which we build our palaces and theatres, tenements and slums.