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The Web is composed of standards: rules and practices to which technologies must adhere if they are to be considered part of the Web. Most of these standards are developed by standards bodies, organizations that publish documents defining Web technologies. But sometimes standards develop more organically, from technologies that become popular and are widely implemented without a formal process. However they arise, Web standards are critical for the existence of the Web, and they can have enormous economic and societal impact.
Next week we will begin looking at Web standards in detail, starting with HTML (the HyperText Markup Language). Before that, however, we need to cover the basics of filesystems and web servers.