A MAN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD!

Tim  Berners-Lee

In June  2009, Sir Tim Berners-Lee,  the  inventor  of  the World  Wide web (www), was presented  with  an Award  for Lifetime  Achievement. This was in recognition of his enormous contribution to the word of internet technology and communications.

Tim Berners-Lee  published  the first webpage in 1990, without it, the Internet as we know it now would not exist. Today, the World  Wide Web reaches tens of millions of  homes in  almost every  country around the  world. Because of it, people have become friends with other people who they will never meet. People do business and shopping without leaving their homes. Every year, it seems, humans find new and better ways  to  communicate through it.

The work that would later result in  the birth of the Web had begun  ten  years earlier, in  1980, when  Berners-Lee  was looking  for  a better way  to  organize  the files  on  his computer. That’s when the following thought  came  to  him: “What if  we could link all  the information  stored on  computers  everywhere?” So, he created  a  system  to  give every “page” on a  computer an  address. However, he wasn’t satisfied with an  invention  that benefited only him. He wanted to link up thousands of other computers, or even millions, to  give everyone easy access  to  huge amounts of  information  all  over  the  world. He made that dream come true.

Yet Berners-Lee remains humble about this achievement, which he gave away to  the  world. “I  put it together as I  went on with my daily work and personal life,” he explained. “But many other people, most of them unknown, also  contributed  essential  ingredients. A group of individuals  who shared the same vision worked together and brought about a  great change.”

Berners-Lee continues to encourage the open spirit of the  Web. While others have made millions, he has not used it to make  money for himself. He now runs a non- profit  group called the  W3C, which is dedicated to keeping  the Web free and open to all. In  fact, it is now working on providing  Internet  access in developing countries. Fortunately, the Web  has succeeded in  remaining true to  Berners-Lee’s initial vision. Anyone with access to a public library, an Internet café or even just their own computer can use it to  find out about anything they  want