Simple Introduction to the 
World Wide Web 

Center for Academic Computing
The Pennsylvania State University


What is the World Wide Web?
 
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a distributed hypermedia system started by CERN (the 
European Laboratory for Particle Physics).  The 'Web' consists of linked hypertext 
documents and 'objects' (pictures, animations, sounds, databases, etc.).

What do I need to explore the World Wide Web?
 
One explores the Web by running a Web 'browser.'  This is a client program that connects 
with Web servers and reads and interprets hypertext documents called 'pages.'  Ideally a 
web browser will take advantage of the characteristics of the computer system for which 
it was developed.  

The least capable Web browser is an ASCII-based hypertext browser such as LYNX.  
Perhaps the only advantage to LYNX is that one can telnet to LYNX clients from 
mainframe sessions.  Versions of LYNX are available for the Macintosh, IBM-PC DOS, 
Vax VMS and other computer platforms.

A more powerful Web browser is the hypermedia Mosaic client program developed by 
the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.  Mosaic clients (and helper 
applications) are freely available for the Macintosh, the IBM-PC running MS Windows 
or OS/2, and other platforms.
 


Universal Resource Locators

A Web browser is 'pointed' at a Web hypertext (or hypermedia) page through the use of a 
Universial Resource Locator (URL). The URL specifies the Internet location of the 
resource and its type.  An example URL is:

http://milkman.cac.psu.edu/~kalbach/hotlist.html

One would point their Web browser at this page by running the appropriate 'open URL' 
command.  In common use URL's are traded among Internet users through conferences, 
catalogs, newsletters,
Usenet NEWS and other methods.

Web Resources at Penn State

The best place to begin exploring the World Wide Web is with the Penn State Home 
Page.  Many Web browsers in Penn State publc computer labs are set to display this page 
when initially run.  The Penn State Home Page has references to other Web and Gopher 
services at Penn State.

The URL for the Penn State Home Page is:

http://www.psu.edu

Getting More Information

The best way to learn about the World Wide Web is to go to a browser and start 
exploring.  An excellent document is the World Wide Web FAQ.  This document is 
available in a number of places, such as the CAC Internet Information Disk 
(ftp.cac.psu.edu in /pub/internexus/WWW.FAQ).