The Web That Never Was

Explore an alternate history of the World Wide Web in this thought-provoking 55-minute conference talk by Dylan Beattie. Delve into a fascinating narrative that examines how pivotal moments and decisions in technology could have drastically altered the digital landscape we know today. Discover the potential outcomes if IBM had chosen a different operating system developer, if Netscape's founders had taken a different career path, or if the web's naming convention had been reconsidered. Journey through a parallel universe where familiar tech giants never existed, and entirely different platforms, protocols, and programming languages shaped the internet. Gain insights into the delicate balance of innovation, marketing, and timing that influenced the web's evolution, and ponder the implications of these alternative scenarios on modern digital culture and industry.

Intro
Who is Dylan
ARPANET
DNS
The Playing Field
Microcosm
The World Wide Web
HTML
Perfect Digital
NCSA
Nintendo
PerfectDigital
PerfectOffice
STAAR
Blub Paradox
Hyper Lisp
Gem 95
Steve Jobs
BIOS
Opera
Grid
Backrub
Y2K
Star Wars
The Next Book
NextStep
The Grid
Everything Has Gone Quiet
Reality
How much of that is true
The early 1980s
What would you have done differently
What else was being done
RTF
AutoCAD
Netscape
Chello
Apple bought Next
Google tried to sell
Questions