In March of 1989 Tim Berners-Lee, then at CERN (the European Particle Physics Laboratory), proposed a project that would lead to the convergence of the Internet, hypertext, and multimedia. The Project, as it was referred to, proposed to develop a distributed hypertext system to enable High Energy Physicists, both within CERN and around the world, to share information.
The Project addressed several key problems that hampered the open sharing of information. By November of 1990, the design document was completed and Tim Berners-Lee started work on the prototype. The world-wide-web, as it was then called, went into use at CERN in May of 1991, and in August its existence was announced in several Internet newsgroups. From that point on the development became a communal affair with the standards being hammered out though heated debate in various newsgroups and mailing lists.
A key development was the July 1992 release of the WWW tool library, it was these tools that were used to develop the various WEB browsers and servers that have made the WEB viable. One of these was MOSAIC, the first cross-platform WEB browser that fully exploited the WEB's hypermedia capability. Developed by Marc Andreeson then of NCSA, MOSAIC played a key role in triggering the explosive growth of the WEB. With the release of the Mac and Windows versions in the Fall of 1993, it put a user-friendly browser in the hands of millions of users. While newer browsers have outstripped MOSAIC's capabilities, it was that program that became synonymous with the WEB.
By the summer of 1994, the WEB had grown far beyond anyone's wildest expectations, to millions of new users it was the Internet. It had grown far beyond its original purpose, therefore CERN in partnership with MIT formed the W3 Organization in July of 1994. This organization took over the responsibility of overseeing the further development and promotion of the WEB.