Information Mesh is a web platform celebrating the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web that explores social, technical, cultural and legal facts throughout different interactive timelines. The project was realized by Media & Interaction Design students at ECAL/University of Art and Design, Lausanne. It was initiated in October 2018 during a one week workshop in partnership with swissnex San Francisco, where students visited key partners and began developing the project.
The timelines present an overview of Web history, starting with the proposal for hypertext by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1989, initially under the name “Information Mesh.” From this start date, users can then explore 30 years of evolution.
The project made its debut as part of the “Future of the Open Web” track of the Web Conference in San Francisco on May 16, 2019. For its inaugural run, a special exhibition edition has been created for display at the swissnex Gallery, but the project lives online 24 hours a day at infomesh.org.
Infomesh Team
ECAL Faculty
Vincent Jacquier, Pauline Saglio, Laura Perrenoud, Tibor Udvari, Pietro Alberti
swissnex Team
Benjamin Bollmann, Mary Ellyn Johnson, Eryk Salvaggio
ECAL Students
Al Zouabi Alfatih, Becheras Diane, Bisseck Iyo, Boulenaz Jonathan, Breithaupt Kevin, Chenaux Maëlle, Matos Sébastien, Mouthon Bastien, Palauqui Mathieu, Sassoli De Bianchi Luca, Simmen Guillaume, Virág Tamara, Vogel Nathan, Zibaut Anouk
Partners
Volker Eckl and Jan Gerlach, Wikimedia Foundation.
Amir Saber Esfahani, Internet Archive.
With the support of the Canton of Vaud.
swissnex Salon
The ECAL study group was part of the swissnex Salon, a series of activities exploring the impact of technology on fundamental societal values drawn from the preamble of the Swiss Constitution. This project playfully examines the Utopian idealism at the heart of the Web, reconnecting us to the original optimism surrounding these communication technologies with a critical engagement regarding where we have arrived today. This presents an opportunity to return a collective focus on how we might bring the human back to the center of innovation.