Chapter 13. The World Wide Web'A Case Study in Interoperability
with Hong-Mei Chen
Note: Hong-Mei Chen is an associate professor at the University of Hawaii's Department of Information Technology Management.
Possibly the most dramatic example of the workings of the Architecture Business Cycle (ABC) can be found in the way in which the goals, business model, and architecture of the World Wide Web have changed since its introduction in 1990. No one?not the customers, the users, or the architect (Tim Berners-Lee)?could have foreseen the explosive growth and evolution of the Web. In this chapter, we interpret the Web from the point of view of the ABC and observe how changes in its architecture reflect the changing goals and business needs of the various players. We first look at the Web's origins in terms of its original requirements and players and then look at how its server-side architecture has changed as a result of the ABC.