Present at the Creation
EmailTwenty years ago, at a lab in Switzerland, a young British software engineer sent out a memo suggesting a new information management system for his employer, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN. The engineer’s name was Tim Berners-Lee, and you probably know the rest of the story. His proposal, printed on paper (you remember paper?), evolved into the World Wide Web, and if Berners-Lee had a nickel for every time someone called him the "father" of it, he would be far wealthier than he already is. He has won countless awards in the years since that paper, and he is properly addressed as Sir Timothy; the Queen knighted him in 2004. But he has not cashed in on the advent of the web nearly as much as many of the entrepreneurs who came after him. Now 53, he is a professor at MIT. Berners-Lee, in a speech at CERN last week, said we’re only at the beginning. "The Web is not all done, it’s just the tip of the iceberg," Berners-Lee said. "I am convinced that the new changes are going to rock the world even more." He did confess to some regrets: He’s a little sorry web addresses begin with "http://" (as in HyperText Transfer Protocol). Why those two slashes? About ten years went by before browsers became smart enough to let you skip it all. How many millions of people, he mused, wasted how many billions of keystrokes typing that little prefix? "To sum it up, the Web has completely democratized access to information, products, services, applications, and other human beings," writes Gene Phifer, an analyst at Gartner.com, the market research group. "Prior to the Web, we had to travel to libraries to look up information. Prior to the Web, we had to go to bookstores to buy books. Prior to the Web, we had to use travel agents to set up a trip. And prior to the Web, the best place to meet friends was at church or a bar." But there are, of course, larger questions. Is it a good thing that we’re going to fewer churches (or bars) and sending instant messages more? It’s easier to order a book online…but is there something to be said for the book you find by accident on your way to the back of the store? Or does it matter? Andrew Grove, the former head of Intel, famously said, "Technology happens, it’s not good, it’s not bad. Is steel good or bad?"
Space Station Flies Over Eastern U.S. at Night 
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Wait just a minute!!! I thought Al Gore invented the net. Now, you tell me this guy did. What goes here? Hey Al!! You might want to contact this joker and set him straight.
Posted by: daveinfw | March 18, 2009, 9:32 am 9:32 am
Actually this guy didn’t event the web. He may have just gave it another purpose from its previous use as a Military and University network. The creation of the web started in the 60′s under the Arpa projects as a Department of Defense technology that could re-route over different segments if one or multiple segments went down. It was in use in the 70′s and 80′s but was not readily available for consumers to use. Other than that Al Gore is a joke and an embarrassment to our nation.
Posted by: Eric | March 18, 2009, 10:09 am 10:09 am
daveinfw: Al Gore never claimed to have “invented” the internet. Please try to stay away from those urban legends.
And clearly, many people were involved in creating the WWW as we know it today. If Berners-Lee gets credit for one critical step, that is all most “inventors” should expect anyway.
Posted by: jock59801 | March 18, 2009, 10:48 am 10:48 am
daveinfw wrote:
“Actually this guy didn’t event the web.”
Actually, YES he did. He didn’t invent the internet, which was ” started in the 60′s under the Arpa projects”(OK, it wasn’t named ARPA back then either).
Steve
Posted by: Steve | March 18, 2009, 1:21 pm 1:21 pm
He only invented the prefix WWW, NOT the Internet.
Posted by: anonymus | March 18, 2009, 1:41 pm 1:41 pm
The person who created the internet is indirectly responsible for the way we communicate, play, shop, bank, etc. However, he is also indirectly responsible for untold stress and misery when it all goes wrong.
Posted by: Andrew | March 18, 2009, 2:43 pm 2:43 pm
yea this guy deff did invent the web, the US has nothing to do with it, Arpa tries to get the credit cause there american, most people just don’t like to accept the fact that a European created one of the single most important technologies today.
Posted by: chris | March 18, 2009, 10:08 pm 10:08 pm
Andrew: We Americans built the worldwide network necessary to host Sir Berners-Lee’s software (ARPANAC). If I am not mistaken, we also created ASCII, TCP/IP, e-mail and instant messaging. Also, prior to the web, Americans were communicating using BBS (bulletin board systems) which networked via telephone home & business computers to hobbyists distributing computer programs & games & pictures. Computer modems at 300 baud were too slow to distribute music or video. Businesses in the US were connecting using distributive computing to connect via dedicated phone lines to central computers. An amalgamation of bbs’s and distributive computing led to American companies like Genie, Prodigy, and Compuserve which I believe preceded the Internet (WWW) and for a time competed with the WWW for supremacy. We were fortunate to have a phone system that provided unlimited time online, unlike most of the rest of the world who were charged by the minute when making & receiving calls. But without the hardware & software engineers & people who created great web content from everywhere in the world who contributed to producing the chips, computers, networking, software and content like internet pages, music, pictures & video, the internet would not have developed into one of the mankind’s greatest inventions. — John Hite, Oklahoma City — PS: I worked for AOL when it charged by the minute (initially only its employees were given unlimited access) for 10 years & prior to that I owned a microcomputer store selling early CP/M, MS-DOS, Atari & Commodore computers & software (plus Apple & Mac software) for 13 years.
Posted by: John | March 19, 2009, 2:14 am 2:14 am
ERRATA: 1. ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) developed by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense and not ARPANAC. 2. Omitted: The internet browser software was a US invention with Netscape being credited as the first browser created by a team led by Marc Andreessen started at the University of Illinois. — John Hite
Posted by: John | March 19, 2009, 2:56 am 2:56 am
For anyone that is intersted in knowing some more history of the internet try looking up Paul Baran (Polish) and Donald Davies(British). Many more worthy people contributed to the genesis of the internet at all levels, and we have to give credit where credit is due, to the American effort, but also to all the other people and nations that had a hand in it. Just be aware that like many endeavours, it wasn’t the sole effort of one country. I’m not trying to belittle the US effort, just point out that people around the world saw a need and responded to it. It was a technology whose time had come and Tim Berners-Lee rightly stands on the shoulders of those that came before.
I also worked in a University and remember the days of bulletin boards, ftp sites and the rest and the WWW was a huge step forward, so yes, thanks Tim, it makes me proud to be able to post this on a system you made possible.
Posted by: Melvyn | March 19, 2009, 4:44 am 4:44 am
This all seems so silly in view of the fact that we now have almost the ENTIRE knowledge of mankind literally at our fingertips. I, for one, celebrate anyone who had a hand in it’s creation, fine tuning and utility. Why, I was even able to get a definition of what a “buzz-cut” is. I just got a #3. This is better than the Library of Alexandria.
Posted by: andyr | March 20, 2009, 10:10 am 10:10 am
Eric, you’re confusing the Internet with the World Wide Web.
Posted by: Alex | March 23, 2009, 9:41 am 9:41 am
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Sarah
Posted by: Sarah | March 27, 2009, 7:37 am 7:37 am
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Ann
Posted by: Ann | April 2, 2009, 4:56 am 4:56 am