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AP/Mike Groll
Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee
Happy Birthday, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web
June 08, 2009
Known as the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee's work to develop html, http, and the url system changed the way the world used computers. Today Berners-Lee continues his work with the Internet, now focused on developing the Semantic Web.
Early Days
Born on June 8, 1955 in south-west London, Tim Berners-Lee's parents were mathematicians and, according to Time, worked on the first computer sold commercially, the Ferranti Mark I. During childhood computers fascinated Berners-Lee: he discussed them with his father and even made pretend computers out of cardboard.
Berners-Lee studied physics at the Queen's College at Oxford University and it was during his time there (according to his biography from the World Wide Web Consortium) that he built his first computer out of spare parts. He earned his degree in 1976 and worked as a software engineer for a few years before going out on his own as a consultant.
One of his consulting jobs in 1980 was for CERN (the European Particle Physics Laboratory). According to the BBC, it was during his time there that Berners-Lee developed the concept of hypertext and wrote a program that would allow him to access many documents via linked words, and called it Enquire.
Berners-Lee studied physics at the Queen's College at Oxford University and it was during his time there (according to his biography from the World Wide Web Consortium) that he built his first computer out of spare parts. He earned his degree in 1976 and worked as a software engineer for a few years before going out on his own as a consultant.
One of his consulting jobs in 1980 was for CERN (the European Particle Physics Laboratory). According to the BBC, it was during his time there that Berners-Lee developed the concept of hypertext and wrote a program that would allow him to access many documents via linked words, and called it Enquire.
Notable Accomplishments
Berners-Lee finished his consulting at CERN and went to work elsewhere for a few years, but in 1984 he returned to CERN through a fellowship. In 1989, according to the BBC, Berners-Lee wrote a paper in which he brought up the idea of using his hypertext with the Internet.
Berners-Lee's idea was to allow computers worldwide to communicate with each other, and so he developed a language that could be used by all programmers called HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML). He also developed a way to give each document online its own location (called a uniform resource locator, or URL), and he created a way for the documents to be shared over the Internet (HTTP). Together this formed the World Wide Web.
Berners-Lee is often mistakenly credited with inventing the Internet, but in fact the Internet was already available when Berners-Lee developed Enquire.
According to the World Wide Web Consortium, Berners-Lee also created the first web client and web browser. On Aug. 6, 1991, according to the Guardian, Berners-Lee made the first web site available online.
In 1994 Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT in order to help develop a system of standards for the Web. Always aiming to keep the Web free and to promote the free exchange of information among people, Berners-Lee has not profited from his own invention in the way that many other tech industry leaders have.
"What impresses me was that he was not in it for the money. That's his background: the academic side. His dream was a free interchange of information, and he stood by his principles," one of his former employers told the Guardian.
Berners-Lee's idea was to allow computers worldwide to communicate with each other, and so he developed a language that could be used by all programmers called HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML). He also developed a way to give each document online its own location (called a uniform resource locator, or URL), and he created a way for the documents to be shared over the Internet (HTTP). Together this formed the World Wide Web.
Berners-Lee is often mistakenly credited with inventing the Internet, but in fact the Internet was already available when Berners-Lee developed Enquire.
According to the World Wide Web Consortium, Berners-Lee also created the first web client and web browser. On Aug. 6, 1991, according to the Guardian, Berners-Lee made the first web site available online.
In 1994 Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT in order to help develop a system of standards for the Web. Always aiming to keep the Web free and to promote the free exchange of information among people, Berners-Lee has not profited from his own invention in the way that many other tech industry leaders have.
"What impresses me was that he was not in it for the money. That's his background: the academic side. His dream was a free interchange of information, and he stood by his principles," one of his former employers told the Guardian.
The Rest of the Story
Although Tim Berners-Lee has not recieved the fortunes that could have come with such as world-changing invention, he has gained great noteriety and been decorated with numerous awards. Berners-Lee, or TBL as he is known in some tech circles, was named one of Time's most important people of the century in 2000. In 2004 he was knighted, was once named the greatest living Briton, and he is a recipient of the Millennium Technology Prize from Finalnd (which came with 1 million euros).
Berners-Lee has been working for years on a project called the Semantic Web, or Data Web, which aims to take all of the information available to humans but not yet understood by your computer (like the actual information contained in the words on a web page), and find a way for computers to put together this data to use simultaneously. In an interview about the semantic Web with Technology Review, Berners-Lee uses an example that sounds strikingly similar to how social networking sites are able to connect people today, although Berners-Lee is thinking of a much larger set of connections with all sorts of data.
Berners-Lee's work is not finished though. In 2006 he launched the Web Science Research Initiative to study how the Web has affected society along with other Web-specific issues with privacy, copyright, and security. When asked about the Initiative by New Scientist, Berners-Lee explained that, "Nobody has thought to look at how people and the web combine as a whole—until now."
Berners-Lee has been working for years on a project called the Semantic Web, or Data Web, which aims to take all of the information available to humans but not yet understood by your computer (like the actual information contained in the words on a web page), and find a way for computers to put together this data to use simultaneously. In an interview about the semantic Web with Technology Review, Berners-Lee uses an example that sounds strikingly similar to how social networking sites are able to connect people today, although Berners-Lee is thinking of a much larger set of connections with all sorts of data.
Berners-Lee's work is not finished though. In 2006 he launched the Web Science Research Initiative to study how the Web has affected society along with other Web-specific issues with privacy, copyright, and security. When asked about the Initiative by New Scientist, Berners-Lee explained that, "Nobody has thought to look at how people and the web combine as a whole—until now."
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