Autori: Balbi, Gabriele, Barcella, Deborah, Benecchi, Eleonora, Fomasi, Martin
Titolo: Cos'è il Web? Il CERN, Robert Cailliau e l'«identità culturale» di una nuova tecnologia (1993-1996)
Periodico: Studi culturali
Anno: 2024 - Fascicolo: 3 - Pagina iniziale: 355 - Pagina finale: 376

This article investigates the communication strategies developed by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in the mid-1990s to impose a specific «cultural identity» of the World Wide Web among media, professionals, and the general public. Through archival research of historical sources preserved in CERN's "WWW collection", complemented by a trace interview, the study reveals that Robert Cailliau, a Belgian computer engineer at CERN and recognized as being the co-inventor of the Web, took deliberate steps to emphasise two points: first, the distinction between the Web and the Internet; and, second, the Web's identity as a European technology «made in CERN». Despite these efforts, the strategies ultimately proved unsuccessful in achieving long-term differentiation and identity recognition. The analysis employs the marketing concepts of «brand confusion» and «brand genericide», applied to the history of the Web as a theoretical framework. This approach frames the Web as a brand whose identity became progressively confused and conflated with that of the Internet.




SICI: 1824-369X(2024)3<355:CIWICR>2.0.ZU;2-Y
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.1405/115890
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1405/115890

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