Start with Words
The most powerful tool on the web is still words.
By Capital Thinking • Issue #892 • View online
This is a web page.
There’s not much here.
Just words.
And you’re reading them.
This is a Web Page
We’ve become obsessed with fancy designs, responsive layouts, and scripts that do magical things.
But the most powerful tool on the web is still words.
I wrote these words, and you’re reading them: that’s magical.I’m in a little city in British Columbia; you’re probably somewhere else.
I wrote this early in the morning, June 20th, 2013; you’re reading it at a different time. I wrote this on my laptop; you could be reading this on your phone, a tablet or a desktop.
You and I have been able to connect because I wrote this and you’re reading it.
That’s the web.
Despite our different locations, devices, and time-zones we can connect here, on a simple HTML page.
I wrote this in a text editor. It’s 6 kB. I didn’t need a Content Management System, a graphic designer, or a software developer.
There’s not much code on this page at all: just simple markup for paragraphs, hierarchy, and emphasis.
I remember teaching my daughter to code HTML when she was 8. The first thing she wrote was a story about a squirrel. She wasn’t “writing HTML”; she was sharing something with the world.
She couldn’t believe that she could write a story on our home computer, and then publish it for the world to see. She didn’t care about HTML; she cared about sharing her stories.
You are still reading.