Tag: List
The 10 Founding Fathers of the Web
by Ranju Chaudhary on Jul.05, 2010, under Trends
While the phrase “founding fathers” is often used in conjunction with men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, we wanted the think about the phrase on the global level. And what is more global than the world wide web? Thus, this holiday, we’re taking a look at 10 individuals who have been instrumental in helping to shape the world wide web and the culture of the Internet as we know it today.
Check out our round up below to learn about some of the most influential people in the creation and development of the ideas and technologies that have led to today’s web experience. Let us know in the comments if you think we’ve missed anyone!
1. Tim Berners-Lee
Why He Matters: Tim Berners-Lee is credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web. A physicist, Berners-Lee and his team built the world’s very first web browser, WorldWideWeb, the first web server and the HyperText-based markup language HTML.
Berners-Lee founded and is the current director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a standards body that oversees the development of the web as a whole. While the Internet
itself dates back 1969, it was Berners-Lee who was able to bring together the concept of the Internet and hypertext, which set the foundation for the Internet as we know it today.
Because CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) didn’t make the World Wide Web proprietary and never charged for dues, its protocols were widely adopted.
2. Marc Andreessen
Why He Matters: Marc Andreessen co-authored Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser and he founded Netscape Communications.
While Mosaic wasn’t the first graphical web browser, it was the first to garner significant attention. It was also the first browser to display images inline with text.
After designing and programing Mosaic, Andreessen went on to co-found Netscape Communications. Netscape’s flagship product, Netscape Navigator, had an enormous impact, by helping to bring the web to mainstream users. In 1998, Netscape released the code base for Netscape Communicator under an open source license. That project, known as Mozilla, became the basis of what we now know as Firefox
.
3. Brian Behlendorf
Why He Matters: Brian Behlendorf was the primary developer of the Apache Web Server and one of the founding members of the Apache Group. While working as the webmaster for Wired Magazines’s HotWired web site, Behlendorf found himself making changes and patches to the HTTP server first developed at NCSA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After realizing that others were also adding their own patches, he put together an electronic mailing list to help coordinate the work.
By February 1995, the project had been given a name – Apache – and the entire codebase from the original NCSA server was rewritten and re-optimized. The real genius with Apache, other than its free and open source nature, was that it was built to be extensible. That meant that ISPs could easily add their own extensions or plugins to better optimize the server, allowing hundreds of sites to be hosted from just one computer server. Apache remains the most popular web server on the Internet.
4, 5, 6. Rasmus Lerdorf, Andi Gutmans and Zeev Suraski
Why They Matter: Lerdorf, Gutmans and Suraski are all responsible for what we know as PHP, the scripting language that remains one of the most used web languages for creating dynamic web pages. Rasmus Lerdorf first created PHP in 1995 and he was the main developer of the project for its first two versions.
In 1997, Gutmans and Suraski decided to extend PHP, rewriting the parser and creating what became known as PHP 3. The two then went on to rewrite the core of PHP, naming it the Zend Engine, and using that to power PHP 4. Gutmans and Suraski further went on to found Zend Technologies, which continues to do much of the development of PHP.
While Larry Wall’s Perl was one of the first general-purpose scripting languages to really take off on the web, the ease of use and embedability of PHP is what has made it take over as the defacto “P” in the LAMP stack (LAMP being a default set of components on which many web applications are based).
7. Brad Fitzpatrick
Why He Matters: Creator of LiveJournal, in many ways the proto-social network, the original author of memcached and the original authentication protocol for OpenID.
Fitzpatrick created LiveJournal in college, as a way for he and his friends to keep one another up to date with what they were doing. It evolved into a larger blogging community and implemented many features, like Friends Lists, the ability to create user polls, support for blog clients, the ability to send text messages to users, the ability to post by phone, post by e-mail, create group blogs and more that have become a standard part of communities like Facebook, Tumblr, MySpace, WordPress.com and Posterous today.
As LiveJournal grew and started to use more and more resources, Fitzpatrick started the memcached project as a way to speed up dynamic web applications and alleviate database load. It does this by pooling together the free memory from across your web servers and then allocate it out as needed. This makes it easy for large projects to scale. Memcached is in use by Wikipedia, Flickr, Facebook, WordPress, Twitter,Craigslist and more.
8. Brendan Eich
Why He Matters: He created JavaScript and now serves as the CTO of the Mozilla Corporation. Eich created JavaScript while at Netscape, first under the name Mocha, then under the name LiveScript, and finally as JavaScript. JavaScript made its official debut in December of 1995.
JavaScript quickly became one of the most popular web programming languages, even if its use cases in the early days were often visual abominations. However, as time has progressed, the advent of JavaScript libraries and frameworks, coupled with the power of Ajax has made JavaScript an integral part of the standards-based web.
9. John Resig
Why He Matters: John Resig is the creator and lead developer of jQuery, the most popular JavaScript library on the web. While other JavaScript libraries, such as Sam Stephenson’s Protoype, preceded jQuery, jQuery’s goal of being compatible across web browsers is what really sets it apart.
In the last two years especially, the momentum around jQuery has exploded and it is now reportedly in use by 31% of the top 10,000 most visited websites. It’s extensibility and the jQuery UI toolkit has also made it a popular adoption target in enterprise application development. Any JavaScript library that can make the leap from web developers to enterprise app builders is the real deal.
JavaScript continues to be one of the big forces within the standards-based web and jQuery is helping to lead the charge.
10. Jonathan Gay
Why He Matters: He co-founded FutureWave Software and for more than a decade was the main programmer and visionary behind Flash.
While not everyone is a fan of Adobe Flash, it’s important to remember how influential and instrumental the technology has been over the course of the last 15 years. Gay wrote a vector drawing program called SmartSketch back in 1993 for the PenPoint operating system, and after PenPoint was discontinued, the technology in SmartSketch was repurposed as a tool that could create animation that could be played back on web pages.
This product, FutureSplash Animator, was acquired by Macromedia in 1996 and renamed Flash. After the acquisition, Gay became Vice President of Engineering at Macromedia and he led the Flash engineering team. Over the years, his team implemented new elements to Flash, like Actionscript.
However, perhaps Gay’s pinnacle achievement with Flash was in the team he spearheaded to create what was then known as the Flash Communication Server (it’s now the Flash Media Server) which let Flash Player use the RTMP protocol to stream audio and video over the web. In essence, this technology is what allowedYouTube to be, well, YouTube.
35 Essential Social Media Resources You May Have Missed
by Ranju Chaudhary on Jun.28, 2010, under Gadgets, Trends, What's Happening?
Chances are you’ve been waiting in line all week for the iPhone 4, which means you haven’t been keeping up on your social media resources. Tsk-tsk.
Put said device to good use, and scroll on down for your weeklycavalcade of hints, tips, insights and analysis.
This week’s list includes some great Google facts, web design inspiration, and a few ways to improve your social business model.
Go on, gorge yourself.
Social Media
- 15 Fab Flash Mob Videos on YouTube
We’ve rounded up the very best flash mob events caught on camera, from big brands and ordinary bands of people. - Why Feedback and Filters are Necessary in Social Media
Social media noise can be combated in two ways: By sending feedback to the noise generators, and by effectively filtering social streams. Here’s a look at both. - HOW TO: Crowdsource Funds for Causes, Creativity and Startups
These resources can help you raise money for your charity, latest project, or business venture. - How Salespeople Are Using Social Media for Real Results
The days of door-to-door salespeople might be over, but social media has opened new opportunities. - 9 Universal Principles of Viral Media Sites
Want your site to get a billion page views by going viral online? Want to enter the rankings as Internetmeme? There’s no set formula, but there are a few tried-and-true principals to adhere to. - The Top 10 Most Watched Web Series, May 2010
If you’re looking for some video entertainment to watch on your lunch break, this chart is a great place to start. - 10 Best UFO Hoax Videos on YouTube
We’ve trawled YouTube for UFO clips, and pulled together a list of the ten very best hoaxes, unexplained footage, fakes, and mysterious home movies. - 3 Things Facebook Does Very Well
Despite the passionate criticism Facebook has received lately, the network is a social giant and web mainstay for a reason. Here’s what it’s doing right. - Why Food Bloggers Are Here to Stay
Food blogs have taken off, but some food bloggers still struggle to have the same legitimacy as their print-publication counter-parts. - Are You a Comments Troll?
When a story’s subject/author/factual errors/typeface sends one into a fit of rage, it can be hard to hold back one’s ire. - HOW TO: Help New Users Stay Engaged on Twitter
Twitter is growing, but new users are often overwhelmed, and many don’t stick around. We’ve outlined some ways you can help prevent them from becoming part of the Twitter quitter trend. - How Social Media is Helping Veterans Connect
Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are utilizing social media for more than just staying in touch with family while deployed. Online communities have become important support systems.
For more social media news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s social media channel on Twitterand become a fan on Facebook.
Tech & Mobile
- iRig Turns Your iPhone Into an Awesome Guitar Stompbox [REVIEW]
We went hands-on with the AmpliTube iRig, an interface for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch that lets you plug in a guitar and use your device as a stompbox. - 10 Fun Facts You Didn’t Know About Google
Google is not your average company and it’s fitting that they have a history chock full of quirk. Here are 10 facts you may not have known about Google. - Tech Tourism: 10 Great Geek Destinations
From the birth of Silicon Valley to the inception of Twitter, we’ve pinpointed ten places on the map for those with a passion for tech and social media. - 14 Sites Changing the Way We Shop
We’ve been shopping online since the mid 90s and the web has become a playground for smart and savvy shoppers. Here are 14 sites changing the way we shop. - Free Music Monday: 10 Free Downloads Compiled for You
10 free tracks in honor of the #musicmonday tradition on Twitter. - How iOS 4 and iTunes Work Together [VIDEO]
Check out this video demo of the new mobile OS and your favorite music app in action together. - 10 Best Multimedia and Entertainment Android Apps
Turn your Android device into a multimedia hub for music, video, books, news, and more with these 10 great apps. - HOW TO: Get Up-to-Date on WordPress 3.0
WordPress 3.0 brings a refined backend interface, a new default theme, a new custom menu structure, and improved support for custom post types and taxonomies. - Top 10 Resources for Design Inspiration
A list of the best visual resources where web designers and creatives can turn for inspiration and to jump start their creative thinking. - iPhone 4 vs. Droid X Feature Comparison [INFOGRAPHIC]
How does the new Droid X stack up against the new iPhone 4? Check the chart. - HOW TO: Use iMovie for iPhone
iMovie for iPhone is the official Apple application that lets iPhone users record and edit high-definition video to publish directly to YouTube or send via MMS and e-mail. - 10 iPhone Apps for a Better Night’s Sleep
Sleep is one of the best things for your body. No matter how many hours of rest you get, these 10 apps can help you make the most of your sleep at night. - iPad Magazines: Don’t Believe the Hype
Much has been said about the iPad’s ability to reinvigorate the publishing industry, but the first generation of magazine apps on the iPad falls short. - 5 Free Ways To Find Local Concerts on Your Smartphone
If you want to find local concerts while you’re on the go, these 5 apps will keep you in the know. - The History of the iPhone [INFOGRAPHIC]
It’s been an auspicious week for Apple and its much-touted wonder device. Take a stroll down memory lane with this infographic. - 5 Cool Non-Profit Uses of Location-Based Tech
We’ve seen brands use location-based services for marketing, but non-profit organizations have jumped on board to spread awareness and make connections. Here are some interesting examples.
For more tech news and resources, you can follow Mashable’s tech channel on Twitter and become a fan onFacebook.
Business
- 5 Useful iPhone Apps for Business Networking
Five useful iPhone apps that will help you become a better business networker. - Newspapers Are Still Dying, But the News Is Not Going Anywhere
Newspapers need to desperately seek new ways to find revenue with experimental tactics in order to stay alive. - HOW TO: Use QR Codes for Small Business Marketing
If you’re unfamiliar with the business potential of QR codes, use this post as a crash course in how to get started. - HOW TO: Use Social Media for Lead Generation
Being that social media is a great place to attract new customers, we put together a quick guide on how to use social media for lead generation. - HOW TO: Improve B2B Sales Productivity with Social Media
Social media offers unprecedented ways to investigate and make connections with business customers that will save you time chasing worthless leads. - Why Your Next Business Card May Be Virtual
Virtual business cards offer many advantages over paper cards: They’re cheaper, take up less room, automatically update, and can instantly hook into your social graph. - HOW TO: Evaluate Your Social Media Plan
If you are frustrated because your business hasn’t seen results from social media marketing, maybe it’s time to rethink your plan. Here are some tips to help.
