The Web Conference (formerly WWW conference) is a yearly international conference on the topic of the future directions of the World Wide Web.
The Conference aims to provide the world with a premier forum for discussion and debate about the evolution of the Web, the standardization of its associated technologies, and the impact of those technologies on society and culture. The conference brings together researchers, developers, users and commercial ventures — indeed all those who are passionate about the Web and what it has to offer.
The World Wide Web was first conceived in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The first conference of the series, WWW1, was held at CERN in 1994 and organized by Robert Cailliau. The International World Wide Web Conferences Committee (IW3C2) was founded by Joseph Hardin and Robert Cailliau later in 1994 and has been responsible for the conference series ever since. Except for 1994 and 1995 when two conferences were held each year, WWW became an annual event held in late April or early May. The location of the conference rotates among America, Europe, and Asia. In 2001 the conference designator changed from a number (1 through 10) to the year it is held; i.e., WWW11 became known as WWW2002, and so on.
Starting with the 2018 edition, the conference series previously known as World Wide Web Conference (WWW) has been renamed as The Web Conference or TheWebConf with a new brand and a new communication model. Until 2021, the conferences have been organized by the IW3C2 in collaboration with Local Organizing Committees and Technical Program Committees. The 2022 edition marks another important change in the history of this conference series: it is now integrated into ACM SIGWEB and will be managed by a new steering committee within ACM.