Happy 31st birthday, World Wide Web!

In March 1989 Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote “Information Management: A Proposal” and with that quiet act launched an idea, the World Wide Web, that has changed our lives.

We are incredibly grateful to our Director, Tim Berners-Lee, for the invention of the Web, for founding the World Wide Web Consortium, for all his work to keep the Web open, international, accessible, and for his decades of inspiration to so many of us.

The Web was envisioned by Tim as a global information-sharing space that would connect people and encourage understanding and sharing of knowledge. It is now an indispensable, exciting and, in some cases a vital global commons.

For 25 years, the Web Consortium has developed the foundational technical standards upon which the Web has flourished. The Web and its place in society have changed dramatically and the Web Consortium has been at the core of its technical interoperability since 1994.

The Web Consortium not only translates the needs of society into Web technology, but also upholds the values of openness, transparency and neutrality that are at the forefront of its Process. Further to our mission to ensure a Web For All regardless of ability, mobility, language, script or culture, we are proud to have done pioneering work in the fields of Web accessibility and Internationalization, and that Privacy and security have long held an important place in the Web Consortium's priorities.

However, society is now reckoning with fears about social, political and technological misuse of the Web. As the next 50% of the world join the Web, we must ensure that the Web they join is inclusive, international, accessible, one that allows them to participate fully in the Web and helps them to enhance our future world. We know that now, more than ever, Web standards must work to the benefit of humanity.

Technologies that meet the deep needs of society do not happen by chance. They are designed and standardized, not by one company, country, or community but through the work of the Web Consortium.

That’s why players on the web join the Web Consortium.
That’s why web developers hone and use their skills to do the right thing.

If you are part of our community, helping to develop technologies for the web with the Web Consortium, thank you. Let others know that the Web was made to work for everyone. Let your family and friends know why your work at the Web Consortium –to make a web for all– matters.

Thank you again, Tim!
Happy Birthday, World Wide Web!

Let’s all keep doing our part to keep making the Web and the world better.

The Web Consortium: making the web work, for everyone.