Coralie Mercier (W3C)

Has the #web changed your life? In what way(s)?
Are there features that are particularly life-saving, or very convenient to you? (e.g., WebRTC for live videoconferencing, or Web Payments API for ecommerce, etc.)

I want to write a @w3c article at the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the release of the World Wide Web into the public domain, for general use and at no cost, by CERN on 30 April 1993.

Any insight from the fediverse to complement our own research is welcome! Thanks in advance! <3

Yes, the Web has changed my life
94.6%
No, sorry. The World Wide What?
1.7%
Just show me the results
3.7%
Poll ended at .
Apr 4, 2023 at 11:52amWeb
Show threadCoralie Mercier (W3C)Apr 30, 2023

✍️ I wrote on the @w3c blog:

“30th anniversary of licensing the Web for general use, and at no cost”

https://www.w3.org/blog/2023/04/30th-anniversary-of-licensing-the-web-for-general-use-and-at-no-cost/

#anniversary #blog #w3c

30th anniversary of licensing the Web for general use and at no cost | W3C Blog

Show threadTajomaApr 30, 2023
@koalie @w3c Wow!!
Show threadJen SimmonsApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c The bit of technology that makes the web overwhelming impactful in our lives is <a>, the link. Without hyperlinking, the web would not be the web. The link is everything.
Show threadGabriel NApr 4, 2023
I remember how infuriating was to encounter Instagram and it’s gilded cage: it does not even allow to paste urls in comments. Instagram, and apps like it, destroy the way the web works. @jensimmons @koalie @w3c
Show threadDarkSnowApr 4, 2023
@wtrmt @jensimmons @koalie @w3c this walled garden approach is the reason MSN and AOL failed but we've allowed Facebook in it's now many faces to get away with it. Posts, tweets and toots are now almost transient and the humble URL is an after thought or actively fought against.
Show threadKeith DukeApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c Wikipedia to me is an incredible resource, speaking as someone who grew up pre-internet. It alone has changed my life for the better.
Show threadCoralie Mercier (W3C)Apr 4, 2023
@kduke same! I was telling a friend/colleague just yesterday how I wish I were a student *now* because I would be so good and not just average. I was thinking mainly about the ability to search the web and learn, and of wikipedia.
I donate monthly to "give back" because I use it every day.
Show threadKeith DukeApr 4, 2023
@koalie Same here on giving back to them, I also donate monthly and encourage others to do so as well. Thanks for the poll and feedback!
Show threadCoralie Mercier (W3C)Apr 4, 2023
@kduke thank you for the feedback! Much appreciated.
Show threadTiago Mendes-CostaApr 4, 2023

@koalie I became a professional web developer in 2003 (gosh!) after years of struggle in the job market. So it has definitely changed my life for the better.

The open source nature of the web (and related tools) was a huge advantage to learn. I spent countless hours reading other people’s code right in the browser.

Show threadZApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c I'm not sure I'd even be still alive if the web didn't exist
Show threadCoralie Mercier (W3C)Apr 4, 2023
@smicur thanks for the Web indeed, then!
If your insight is generic enough that I could reuse it in my story, please feel free to be a wee bit more specific! Anything I'd re-use would be anonymized.
Show threadZApr 4, 2023

@koalie there was no one specific reason to boil down, and also I used to have a lot of difficulties during childhood I prefer not to talk about.

Long story short: social interactions, sharing hobbies, getting new ones - I'm not sure I could have had either of those without the web.

That kind of social connection over cities and even countries, breaking locality, helps a lot for introvert and/or neurodivergent people.

Show threadSébastien NOBILIApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c The Web gives me the opportunity to write apps for myself (and target my Linux machines) *and* give them to others running these nasty operating systems I don't want to be associated to 😁
Show threadSabrina Web  📎Apr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c I'd like to copy here something I recently wrote in a forum. It is long so I will make a thread of it.

What benefits did the internet bring in my life? A lot.
Thanks to the internet I met a person with whom I have been in a relationship for several months, to begin with.
Thanks to the internet I discovered a lot of things about introvertion. I'm an introvert raised by extraverts in a way that would suit an extravert better.

[follows]

Show threadSabrina Web  📎Apr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c
I've always thought that I was the wrong one, before learning, at the age of 43, that my brain simply works in a different way. I received the support I didn't even know I needed.
I have learned, at 47, about executive function disorder, and recognized myself fully in the description. I used to think I'm lazy, or messy, then I discovered that I might have autism or ADD (and I've never been diagnosed none of them).

[follows]

Show threadSabrina Web  📎Apr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c
And when I learned this, I approached my issues from a different angle and I'm less messy (in a way - I can't do miracles).
I have taken some courses on Coursera, only as a hobby, because I was already over 40 when I took the first course, but it's still interesting to learn new things. And I'm sure I'll take other courses in the future. I have met interesting people in various social media.

[follows]

Show threadSabrina Web  📎Apr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c
I have written some code, only for myself, but I might write some code in the future that could be useful for other people too.

[the end]

Show threadMarcoApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c

The web changed my life from being focused around the hometown to literally the world. It has made things like communication to others very easy, think about WhatsApp, video conferencing, etc.
On the other hand it has made a lot of things abstract. No direct face to face communication to someone. You miss a lot of body language during the communication. This causes a lot of misunderstanding among people and thus increasing the individualism and opposites. Because of the indirect communication (between me and you for example) a lot of details get lost.

Yes, I know, I’m from the seventies, I’m getting old.
Show threadDerk-Jan 💙💛🇺🇦Apr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c An important change I think was the 2010-2014 era. Before the smartphone era, my usage of the web was 'special'. It's culture (chartrooms, forums, blogs) was still mostly for 'nerds' even though there had already been quite an influx of people, those who truly used the web almost every waking hour were rare.

Bur after that time, it truly became Everyone's Internet, ubiquitous, omni-present and invasive.

Show threadDerk-Jan 💙💛🇺🇦Apr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c For me personally, I'm in FOSS because of the web and the Internet.

It taught me to code better than I was learning in school and uni. It introduced me to peers with similar minds in other countries, which in turn led me to visiting those countries. It improved my English to a virtually first language level.

Show threadLéonie WatsonApr 4, 2023

@koalie without the web and the technologies that underpin it, I would not have my job (or quite likely any job at all).

I would not have my Comp Sci degree or be studying my History degree. I would not be able to bank, shop, pay taxes, watch TV, and numerous other things without sighted assistance...
@w3c

Show threadLéonie WatsonApr 4, 2023

@koalie I would not be able to monitor my blood glucose in realtime, or research the research into possible cures for Diabetes or the restoration of sight.

If you really get down to it, I would not have met @perlbod (since we met whilst working for one of the first ISP in the UK) 😊

@w3c

Show threadxuf Apr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c I think there are two type of persons, the ones that the web changed their lives, and the ones that they are not aware that it changed their lives.
Show threadGerbrand van DieyenApr 4, 2023
@xuf @koalie @w3c A pedantic answer could be that the web is just one of the applications on the internet. In the 90s, that was still a thing.
Show threadArosano@hachyderm 🇮🇱🇩🇰Apr 4, 2023
@xuf @koalie @w3c There is a diminishing minority that have no idea about web, internet etc. In Denmark they are exempt from digitalization in government. In 10-15 years they will be gone, but till then what? Ignore them?
Show threadPhil SherryApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c Its ability to let disabled and chronically ill people live regular lives—by working from home, online shopping, video calls, and so on—is unparalleled. (On the few occasions web developers get over themselves and make accessible software, that is…)
Show threadD PawsonApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c
(sorta) the wrong place to ask @koalie
Show threadloptaApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c I mean, it has reduced my Gopher usage...
Show threadDan ThorntonApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c
Without the internet, I wouldn't have landed my first job working for my dream publication, built my career, started working for myself, easily kept in touch with family and friends around the world, met new people through various hobbies, and ended up starting my own websites, and a small sim racing team that kept me sane during Covid lockdowns...
Show threadJaageriApr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c

Of all the bad things web has done, i would gladly had died on depression rather then see how dissinformation, crap, trolls, flat earth, online abuse, dos attacks, dark web crime, cracking personal information for scams, facebook, tiktok, google, etc has broken the world and made people more stupid then ever before.

Show threadCoralie Mercier (W3C)Apr 4, 2023

@Jaageri powerful technology can be an accelerant for the incredible good nature of humans as well as the incredible stupidity of humans.

@w3c

Show threadDan JonesApr 4, 2023

I started programming around ten years old on my family's Commodore 64. No network connection or anything like that. I just made silly games.

A couple years later when we upgraded, and got the Internet in our home, it changed everything for me. Now my silly little creations could be something I could share with others, without having to put it on a floppy disk first.

It was a fun thing to twiddle around with, and looking at the source for other webpages, I learned how to build them myself.

I went to college to study theater and become an actor, but after college, when roles weren't coming in, my fun little hobby became my job, and then my career, which has lasted twenty years now.

Without that time as a twelve-year-old kid, playing around on Prodigy, I don't know how I would support my wife and children now.

@koalie @w3c

Show threadPixelJonesApr 5, 2023
@danjones000 @koalie @w3c
C64 80's kids for the win. My story is similar. Got my first job (sans degree) b/c I could sling 6502 code on the C64, pivoted to PCs then Windows then client-server then the Web. Still coding.
Show threadghostdroneApr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c for one thing, without the Web and social media as a part of the WWW, I probably wouldn't have met the love of my life who I'll marry in a few months.

Otherwise, my cultural perspective would have been quite narrow, as I have discovered a lot of varied culture via the Web that would have been hard for me to find out about.

Show threadNeko the gamerApr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c i found out things and discovered many topics i wouldn't have never found with the constraints of the place where i live

this one says it all for me

Show threadbazcurtisApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c @Edent The next question, for the better?
Show threaddannyApr 4, 2023
@koalie @w3c I’m from 1994, so I don’t know life without the web. I’ve certainly seen it change a lot since I started using it back when I was a kid. But it has for sure influenced my life in such a positive light. I’ve been able to grow, learn and find a sense of community among people who are also looking for a more welcoming space on the web
Show threadAlex WhiteApr 4, 2023

@koalie @w3c Most of all it has given me a career which has been interesting, fun and fulfilling!

In addition, I see the impact when I talk with my 94 year old dad. Any conceivable question that comes up, we can quickly find the answer for. He can’t understand how it can be possible “for all that information to be in the phone”, for me it is as natural as thinking.

On top of that the transactional capability - from purchasing goods to renting rooms any where and at any time - revolutionary

Show threadsalyavinApr 4, 2023
@koalie
To be able to work from anywhere is a big deal. Not only video calls but no shelves of manuals, I can just do a web search.
@w3c @Edent
Show threadcassiozenApr 5, 2023
@koalie @w3c Where do I even start? By mentioning the picture I have ingrained in my mind of my father watching me as I access the web for the first time? Or that time I moved to a different city as a kid and made my first friend when I overheard someone talking about HTML. From my career, to my wife that I met online, to my children that were conceived in vitro by a doctor we searched online… Can’t begin to imagine what my life would have been without the web.
Show threadbenefantApr 5, 2023
@koalie @w3c without the web I would not have the job I have and neither of the jobs I had before. I also would probably have missed less school and would have gotten a lot more sleep for most of my life. I still remember writing my first html in Microsoft Frontpage(?) and then moving on to Dreamweaver. I followed the trend to build my side in Notepad and remember slapping CSS badges on every page. I think the forgiveness of the web was crucial to get me interested.
Show threadPatrice Ferlet aka MΣƬΛᄂ3DApr 5, 2023
@koalie @w3c web gave me access to information from researchers, professionals, discussion with them and that made me the developper I am now. Web is also what allowed open source softwares to be accessed from repositories and that I can study, enhance and propose to the community. Without web, my life would be very different
Show threadPixelJonesApr 5, 2023

@koalie @w3c
I was a middle-aged software developer in 1994 working in tech behind dead-tree catalog publishing (which the Web was about to obliterate).

Fortunately, I was using SGML (precursor to HTML) & pivoted early to HTML/Java/JavaScript & was an early blogger. Thru RSS & Weblogs I tapped into great minds & trends.

I might have been stuck in old tech (some friends were) but I'm still a developer almost 30 years on, thanks to the enduring/evolving WWW revolution.

Show threadSumana HarihareswaraApr 7, 2023

@koalie @w3c

I met my spouse because a website I read hyperlinked to the magazine he cofounded as an example publication when they started up a feedreader feature using Resource Description Framework (RDF).

WebRTC videocalls help me stay fit as I exercise with distant friends.

Internationalization standards helped my dad write an online column in Kannada.

ePub helped me self-publish multiple books and get them to readers.

a11y standards let me read & participate as I age.

Show threadSumana HarihareswaraApr 7, 2023

@koalie @w3c

I use a feedreader and RSS & Atom feeds to keep up with friends and advocacy groups, stay apprised of business news, and enjoy entertainment. This has been particularly convenient and nourishing since the pandemic started, as it's been harder to do these things in person.

Similarly: being able to privately and securely interact with banks, governments, and other institutions over the web has helped keep me safe for the last three years.

Show threadAmy MasonApr 7, 2023

@koalie @w3c

As a blind person, the web has made it far easier for me to conduct my personal business without the help of a sighted person. I can read bills and statements, and pay online instead of having to write checks.

It has also opened the door to so many books. Electronic books are far more available now because the internet makes it possible to purchase, send and receive them.