Tim Berners-Lee has
been called a genius by a lot of people. He's also one of the good
guys. This month, in Helsinki, he receives the first Millennium
Technology Prize, given by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation.
In case you don't know, Tim Berners-Lee is the fellow who invented
the World Wide Web. And, in case you're wondering, unlike Al Gore's
claim to inventing the Internet, Berners-Lee's credential is real
and undisputed.
Here's how it happened. Back in 1980, Berners-Lee was working
at CERN, the physics research lab in Switzerland. He noticed that
scientists who worked there often had trouble sharing information
over the lab's computer network.
The scientists who worked at CERN came from many countries and
spoke several different languages. They called lots of different
educational and research institutions home and those institutions
all had different computer systems. The computer systems they
used didn't make it easy to get information even on your own computer
in your own language.
The inspiration for Berners-Lee's solution to the information
sharing problem came from two sources. The first was a Victorian
Era self-help guide that he remembered from the library in the
home outside London where he grew up during the Sixties. The book
was called "Enquire Within Upon Everything."
The other inspiration was Berners-Lee's own experience of how
the human brain works. Your brain doesn't need elaborate programming
commands. Instead the brain easily makes connections between different
bits of information.
In 1989 Berners-Lee submitted a proposal to the powers that be
to use existing tools such as hypertext linking to create the
system that would help CERN's scientists easily share all kinds
of information. The powers that be thought it was a dumb idea.
But with the help of a creative boss Berners-Lee persevered to
develop what became the World Wide Web.
The Finnish Technology Award Foundation isn't the only group
that's recognized him for his invention. Last year Queen Elizabeth
knighted him. Time Magazine called him one of the 100 greatest
minds of the 20th century. He's received the Japan Prize and a
Macarthur Foundation "genius grant."
Some of those honors come with pretty big money. The Macarthur
grant is worth a million bucks. The Finns are giving him more
than that.
Between those awards and what he's paid for his work, Mr. Berners-Lee
and his family are probably quite comfortable. But he would have
been rich beyond counting if he'd chosen to patent his invention.
He didn't.
The reasons he gives sound simple and even corny. He has no desire
to amass great wealth. He wants to make the world a better place.
So, in effect, he gave all of us his invention and it's changed
our lives.
What do you do for an encore when you invent the something like
the Web and you're still in your thirties? Mr. Berners-Lee is
doing what he loves to do.
He's teaching at MIT. He's the Director of the World Wide Web
Consortium, the body that coordinates Web development and technical
standards around the globe. And he's working on something he calls
the Semantic Web.
Mr. Berners-Lee thinks that his Semantic Web concept will be
a dramatic improvement on the current Web. He thinks it might
just be more important than his original Web idea. He may be right.
We'll have to wait and see.
Is Tim Berners-Lee a genius? According to one definition, in
order to qualify as a genius you have to have at least two great
ideas in your lifetime. If that's the test, then the jury is still
out on Mr. Berners-Lee, but he's looking good so far.
While we're waiting for someone else to decide if the man's a
genius, we can enjoy the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee's great
invention and great gift to us all. And we can revel in his success.
It's nice to see one of the good guys win.
Top of page
Here are some
resources on Tim Berners-Lee and the development of the Web.
Start with Weaving
the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World
Wide Web. It is Mr. Berners-Lee's own story about how it all
happened and what he did. It's also probably an accurate view
of who he is. Besides the clearly explained processes and history
covered by this book you also get the impression that Berners-Lee
is very smart, very gentlemanly, very thoughtful and very, very
quiet. Passion does not leap off the page, but lots of ideas and
history do.
For insight into the early development of what became the personal
computer industry and the Digital Age, pick up Dealers
of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age
by Michael A. Hiltzik. This book is about the development of ideas
and about how and why great ideas don't turn out to be commercial
successes. The book tells the story of the research facility that
Xerox set up, officially called the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
and known as Xerox PARC. It's also about how Xerox did and didn't
profit from this incredible institution that can claim to have
invented the first personal computer, the windows-style graphical
interface, the laser printer and much more.
Time
Magazine has a lot to say about why they think Tim Berners-Lee
is one of the 100 most important people of the last century.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) site has bios of lots of
key folks including Tim Berners-Lee. This is Berners-Lee's
official site. This site also has lots of interesting related
pages about the Web, its history and current development projects.
See an article
about Tim Berners-Lee as an Internet pioneer on the ibiblio
site.
The Wikipedia
article on Tim Berners-Lee.
15 June 2004
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