Sir Tim Berners-Lee revolutionised life as we know it by changing the way we communicate and consume information.
In 1989, the scientist submitted a proposal for an information management system to help his colleagues at CERN share information amongst themselves.
Impressed by the idea, Sir Tim’s boss allowed him time to work on the idea and by 1991 the World Wide Web was up and running.
Today, there are nearly two billion websites online and it is hard to imagine life without the web. This is all thanks to the genius of Sir Tim.
Here’s everything you need to know about Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
Who is Sir Tim Berners-Lee?
Tim John Berners Lee was born on 8 June 1955 and grew up in London. He studied physics at Oxford University and became a software engineer.
In 1980, while working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, he first described the concept of a global system, based on the concept of ‘hypertext’, that would allow researchers anywhere to share information. He also built a prototype called ‘Enquire’.
In 1984, Berners Lee’s returned to CERN, which was also home to a major European Internet node. In 1989, Berners Lee published a paper called ‘Information Management: A Proposal’ in which he married up hypertext with the Internet, to create a system for sharing and distributing information not just within a company, but globally. He named it the World Wide Web.
He also created the first web browser and editor. The world’s first website, http://info.cern.ch, was launched on 6 August 1991. It explained the World Wide Web concept and gave users an introduction to getting started with their own websites.
In 1994, Berners Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium at the Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. He has served as director of the consortium since then. He also works as a senior research scientist at LCS which has now become the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
How much is Tim Berners-Lee worth?
Reports about Sir Tim’s wealth vary wildly, but it’s safe to say he isn’t poor.
The Wealth Record has his net worth at $60 million – or more than 45.5 million euros.
According to The Richest, his personal wealth is valued at $50 million while Celebrity Net Worth reckon he is worth $10 million.
How does Sir Tim feel about the World Wide Web now?
Sir Tim is a vocal supporter of the concept of net neutrality and of free Internet.
One of his ideas is a ‘decentralised’ Internet — a hive network where no one has overall control and believes monopolies are dangerous. He is also wary of the amount of private data and information people share online, and how the Web has been abused by companies.
He has also said the impact of fake news is increasingly concerning and has unveiled plans to tackle the harvesting of data.
Best Tim Berners-Lee quotes
“There are people working in the lab trying to imagine how the Web could be different. How society on the Web could look different. What could happen if we give people privacy and we give people control of their data? We are building a whole ecosystem.” – Interview with Vanity Fair
“Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.” – A Framework for Web Science
“We demonstrated that the Web had failed instead of served humanity, as it was supposed to have done, and failed in many places” – Interview with Vanity Fair
“The biggest threat is for any large powerful force to take over the Internet.” –Evening Standard
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