Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee is a British computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web. He wrote the first web browser and server and founded the consortium that governs the standards of the web.
Early Life and Education
Berners-Lee was born in London in 1955. Both of his parents were mathematicians who worked on the Ferranti Mark 1, one of the earliest commercial computers.
He studied physics at Queen's College, Oxford, and graduated in 1976. He worked as an engineer and as a software consultant before joining the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
The Invention of the World Wide Web
Berners-Lee joined CERN in Geneva in 1980 as a software engineer. He proposed a system of linked documents to help the scientists share information.
He wrote the first version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol and the Hypertext Markup Language in 1989 and 1990. He built the first web server and the first web browser on a NeXT computer.
The first website was published at CERN in 1991. The system was made available to the public without charge, and the growth of the web followed rapidly.
He founded the World Wide Web Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. The consortium develops the standards that keep the web open and interoperable.
The Standards and the Architecture
Berners-Lee established the principles of universality, decentralisation, and interoperability. The design of the web allows any document to link to any other without central control.
He has argued for the importance of the web as a public resource and for the principle of net neutrality. He has warned against the concentration of power in a few large platforms.
He leads the World Wide Web Foundation, which works to extend access to the web and to protect the rights of users. He has campaigned for the openness of data and of government.
The Honours and the Later Work
Berners-Lee was knighted in 2004 for his services to the development of the internet. He received the Turing Award in 2016 for his invention of the web.
He was a professor at the University of Southampton and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has held a chair at Oxford University.
He has proposed the concept of the semantic web, in which the data on the web is structured so that it can be processed by machines. The idea has influenced the development of linked data.
He remains an advocate for the open and decentralised web. His invention has transformed commerce, communication, education, and government throughout the world.
The Recognition and the Awards
Berners-Lee received the Turing Award in 2016 for the invention of the World Wide Web. He was the first person to receive the award for the development of the web.
He was knighted in 2004 and received the Order of Merit in 2007. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He was named one of the most important people of the twentieth century by the magazine Time. He has received the Japan Prize and the Prince of Asturias Award.
The Advocacy and the Campaigns
Berners-Lee has campaigned for the openness and the neutrality of the internet. He has argued against the surveillance and the censorship.
He launched the Contract for the Web in 2019 to protect the rights of the users. The initiative sets out the principles for the governments, the companies, and the citizens.
He has warned of the dangers of the concentration of the power in the hands of the few platforms. He has argued for the decentralisation of the web.
The Education and the Family
Berners-Lee studied physics at Queen's College, Oxford. He worked as an engineer for the telecommunications companies before joining CERN.
He was born in London to parents who worked on the early computers. The environment of his childhood shaped his interest in the information technology.
He married Nancy Carlson and later Rosemary Leith. He has two children from his first marriage.
The Invention and the Standards
Berners-Lee defined the three fundamental technologies of the web. The Hypertext Markup Language describes the structure of the documents.
The Uniform Resource Identifier identifies the resources on the web. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol governs the exchange of the information between the client and the server.
He wrote the first web browser and the first web server in 1990. He made the technology available to the public without the payment of the royalties.
The Recognition and the Awards
Berners-Lee received the Turing Award in 2016 and the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering in 2013. He was knighted in 2004 for his services to the internet.
He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 2001. He has received the Japan Prize and the Millennium Technology Prize.
He is the founder of the Web Science Trust and the World Wide Web Foundation. He holds a chair at Oxford University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
See also
- World Wide Web
- Hypertext Transfer Protocol
- World Wide Web Consortium
- Semantic web
References
- ↑ Berners-Lee, Tim. Weaving the Web. San Francisco: Harper, 1999.
- ↑ Berners-Lee, Tim. Information Management: A Proposal. Geneva: CERN, 1989.
- ↑ Gillies, James and Cailliau, Robert. How the Web Was Born. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
- ↑ Berners-Lee, Tim and Hendler, James and Lassila, Ora. The Semantic Web. Scientific American, 2001.