This document summarizes the history and development of the Web of Things (WoT) workshop series over the past 5 years. It discusses how the concept of applying web technologies to connect physical objects emerged in 2006-2008. The first WoT workshop was held in 2010 and discussed early research applying REST and JSON to embedded devices and sensors. Subsequent workshops in 2011-2014 saw increasing attendance, submission and acceptance of papers. The workshops have helped establish the WoT concept and community with over 80 papers presented. Standardization efforts are now underway at the W3C to develop best practices for the WoT.