Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, invented the World Wide Web in 1989 while working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory. His work was motivated by the practical problem of managing and sharing a vast and constantly changing body of information among a global community of scientists. At the time, computers at CERN were connected, but sharing data was inconsistent and complicated. Berners-Lee envisioned a new system that would combine the power of the Internet with hypertext, a concept that had been explored in previous systems but had not yet been applied to a decentralized global network.
In his March 1989 proposal, titled "Information Management: A Proposal," Berners-Lee laid out the technical specifications for his new system. His manager at the time, Mike Sendall, famously described the proposal as "vague but exciting." The system was designed to be decentralized, meaning no central authority would control the creation of links or the information itself. This was a significant departure from existing systems that often relied on a single database or a rigid, tree-like file structure. The core of his proposal was the creation of a "web" of hypertext documents that could be accessed by "browsers."
To bring his vision to life, Berners-Lee used a NeXT computer. This machine was the ideal platform for his work, as its NeXTSTEP operating system provided a powerful and user-friendly development environment. Berners-Lee wrote the first web server, "httpd," and the first client, a browser/editor named "WorldWideWeb," which ran in the NeXTStep environment. The NeXT computer he used became the world's first web server, and it was so critical to the early Web that the network would have gone offline if the computer had been turned off.
The initial specifications Berners-Lee created for the Web—URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)—formed the fundamental technologies that still underpin the Web today. He developed the first web browser, which also functioned as an editor, and the first web server. In 1993, CERN made the crucial decision to release the Web technology into the public domain, ensuring that it would be free for anyone to use and develop without paying royalties. This decision was a key factor in the Web's explosive growth and global adoption.
After leaving CERN in 1994, Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Computer Science. As the director, he has overseen the development of web standards, ensuring the continued interoperability and evolution of the platform. His work has earned him numerous accolades, including a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 and the A.M. Turing Prize in 2017. He continues to be a prominent voice in the technology community, advocating for an open, accessible, and decentralized web.