Websites

Site
Noun:

1. the area or exact plot of ground on which anything is, has been, or is to be located.

Web
Noun:

1. A complex, interconnected structure or arrangement.

Humans have occupied sites from our earliest times. From the Lascaux Caves in Southern France and Aboriginal rock art sites on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia to Dover Castle in the South of England and the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates.

As human populations have grown, the complexity of sites and their interconnections has increased dramatically. Stonehenge was used for many years as a gathering place for prehistoric people with many theories to its purpose. The Roman Empire is another example of ever increasing complexities in human sites and interconnection with surrounding regions.

In a lightning bolt of technology and imagination, we are no longer tied to a physical location but can let our virtual beings inhabit locations in the digital world without the use of a straight road and a legion of soldiers.

This release from physical and geographical restrictions has seen an increase in knowledge sharing previously unseen in the history of human evolution. While websites can be used for unwholesome activities just as the first club was used to bludgeon another human on the noggin, I am sure the benefits far outweigh the negative aspects of the web.

As with the rock art of our ancestors, our websites are not, and cannot be, solely functional places. To satisfy our human spirit we are compelled to decorate the walls of our websites. See these beautiful examples of the fusion of art and technology – and our very own Vasse Virgin website – which recently won an international design award. (How was that for a plug Engine Room?)

Over the past 24 years of website development we have seen a great deal of change and innovation and there are now nearly 1 billion websites currently online – Out of site. Out of mind.

It is difficult to imagine a life without websites. But what is the future of websites? Will they still be as important to us in another 24 years? And if so, how will they have changed?
This is a very difficult question to answer without the use of a DeLorean DMC-12. And this is where I have to leave it to you. What do you think is the future for websites. Will they even exist in another 24 years, or will they have evolved into a completely new species?

Get your vote in here.