I just finished listening to a fun radio program (on RTE 1) on the birthday of the WWW. I think they (and now I) were a day late but I thought I’d celebrate the day regardless.

On April 30, 1993, Cern put the web in the public domain, which put everyone on the same page for sharing a protocol rather than having the Internet host multiple proprietary protocols. (Here’s a fun article on the birthday: The World Wide Web Turns 15 (again).)

I’m tempted to write about how the WWW has changed the world – but I think we can all come up with our own ways. What I think is interesting is the move to put the WWW in the public domain. I think that moved really changed today’s business model – information is still valuable – but made more valuable when it’s shared then kept secret.

The Internet would not be as useful without the WWW, the WWW would not be as useful without Google, and Google has opened their code to others to create tools to make Google more useful.

The businesses that succeed today are the ones build upon the new model, they build upon innovations of others and they don’t protect their Intellectual Property in the same way. I think they retain market share and market placement through value added service (be it better technology, better service, better promotion.)

There may be an opportunity for Internet and broadband providers to buy into this new model. It seems as if providers who will do well in the long run will find a way to take on the new business model and work with others to create a better plan for providing broadband. Maybe that new plan with be an Open Network plan – maybe it will be something completely new.

So that’s a long way of saying – happy birthday world wide web!