TIM BERNERS- LEE Background
In 1989, while working at at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, Tim Berners-lee proposed a global hypertext project, to be known as the World Wide Web. Based on the earlier "Enquire" work, it was designed to allow people to work together by combining their knowledge in a web of hypertext documents. He wrote the first World Wide Web server, "httpd", and the first client, "WorldWideWeb" a what-you-see-is-what-you-get hypertext browser/editor which ran in the NeXTStep environment. This work was started in October 1990, and the program "WorldWideWeb" first made available within CERN in December, and on the Internet at large in the summer of 1991.
Through 1991 and 1993, Tim continued working on the design of the Web, coordinating feedback from users across the Internet. His initial specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined and discussed in larger circles as the Web technology spread.
Tim Berners-Lee graduated from the Queen's College at Oxford University, England, 1976. Whilst there he built his first computer with a soldering iron, TTL gates, an M6800 processor and an old television.
He spent two years with Plessey Telecommunications Ltd (Poole, Dorset, UK) a major UK Telecom equipment manufacturer, working on distributed transaction systems, message relays, and bar code technology.
In 1978 Tim left Plessey to join D.G Nash Ltd (Ferndown, Dorset, UK), where he wrote among other things typesetting software for intelligent printers, and a multitasking operating system.
A year and a half spent as an independent consultant included a six month stint (Jun-Dec 1980)as consultant software engineer at CERN. Whilst there, he wrote for his own private use his first program for storing information including using random associations. Named "Enquire" and never published, this program formed the conceptual basis for the future development of the World Wide Web.
From 1981 until 1984, Tim worked at John Poole's Image Computer Systems Ltd, with technical design responsibility. Work here included real time control firmware, graphics and communications software, and a generic macro language. In 1984, he took up a fellowship at CERN, to work on distributed real-time systems for scientific data acquisition and system control. Among other things, he worked on FASTBUS system software and designed a heterogeneous remote procedure call system.
In 1994, Tim founded the World Wide Web Consortium at the then Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) which merged with the Artificial Intelligence Lab in 2003 to become the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Since that time he has served as the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium a Web standards organization which develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. The Consortium has host sites located at MIT, at ERCIM in Europe, and at Keio University in Japan as well as Offices around the world.
In 1999, he became the first holder of the 3Com Founders chair. He is currently the 3COM Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at CSAIL where he also heads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG). In December 2004 he was named a Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton, UK. He is co-Director of the Web Science Trust, launched in 2006 as the Web Science Research Initiative, to help create the first multidisciplinary research body to examine the World Wide Web and offer the practical solutions needed to help guide its future use and design. He is a Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, started in 2008 to fund and coordinate efforts to further the potential of the Web to benefit humanity.
In June 2009 then Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that Sir Tim Berners-Lee would work with the UK Government to help make data more open and accessible on the Web, building on the work of the Power of Information Task Force. Sir Tim is currently a member of The Public Sector Transparency Board to drive forward the UK Government’s transparency agenda.
He is the author, with Mark Fischetti, of the book "Weaving the Web" on the the past present and future of the Web.
Brief BIO:
A graduate of Oxford University, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, in 1989. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.
He is the 3Com Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence ( CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he also heads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG). He is also a Professor in the Electronics and Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton, UK.
He is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards organization founded in 1994 which develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. He is a founding Director of the Web Science Trust (WST) launched in 2009 to promote research and education in Web Science, the multidisciplinary study of humanity connected by technology.
He is also a Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, launched in 2009 to fund and coordinate efforts to further the potential of the Web to benefit humanity.
During 2009 Tim also advised the UK Government's "Making Public Data Public" initiative.
In 2001 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has been the recipient of several international awards including the Japan Prize, the Prince of Asturias Foundation Prize, the Millennium Technology Prize and Germany's Die Quadriga award. In 2004 he was knighted by H.M. Queen Elizabeth and in 2007 he was awarded the Order of Merit. In 2009 he was elected a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Web and HTML have been around a long time now, and
you may not realize that the language you are writing your Web page in was
standardized by a group of around 500 member organizations from around the
world. This group is the World Wide Web Consortium or W3C.
The W3C was created in October 1994, to
"lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by
developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
interoperability."
They wanted to ensure that the Web continued to work no
matter what business or organization built tools to support it. Thus, while
there might be browser wars in the features that various Web browsers offer,
they all can communicate across the same medium - the World Wide Web.
Most Web Developers look to the W3C for standards and new
technology. This is where the XHTML recommendation came from, and many XML
specifications and languages.
The W3C mission is to lead the World Wide Web to its full
potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure the long-term
growth of the Web. Below we discuss important aspects of this mission, all of
which further W3C's vision of One Web.
Principles
The following principles guide W3C's work.
Web for All
The social value of the Web is that it enables human
communication, commerce, and opportunities to share knowledge. One of W3C's
primary goals is to make these benefits available to all people, whatever their
hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical
location, or physical or mental ability.
Web on Everything
The number of different kinds of devices that can access
the Web has grown immensely. Mobile phones, smart phones, personal digital
assistants, interactive television systems, voice response systems, kiosks and
even certain domestic appliances can all access the Web.
W3C's vision for the Web involves participation, sharing
knowledge, and thereby building trust on a global scale.
Web for Rich Interaction
The Web was invented as a communications tool intended to
allow anyone, anywhere to share information. For many years, the Web was a
"read-only" tool for many. Blogs and wikis brought more authors to
the Web, and social networking emerged from the flourishing market for content
and personalized Web experiences. W3C standards have supported this evolution
thanks to strong architecture and design principles.
Some people view the Web as a giant repository of linked
data while others as a giant set of services that exchange messages. The two
views are complementary, and which to use often depends on the application.
Web of Trust
The Web has transformed the way we communicate with each
other. In doing so, it has also modified the nature of our social
relationships. People now "meet on the Web" and carry out commercial
and personal relationships, in some cases without ever meeting in person. W3C
recognizes that trust is a social phenomenon, but technology design can foster
trust and confidence. As more activity moves on-line, it will become even more
important to support complex interactions among parties around the globe.
Standards
W3C standards define an Open Web Platform for application
development that has the unprecedented potential to enable developers to build
rich interactive experiences, powered by vast data stores that are available on
any device. Although the boundaries of the platform continue to evolve,
industry leaders speak nearly in unison about how HTML5 will be the cornerstone
for this platform. But the full strength of the platform relies on many more
technologies that W3C and its partners are creating, including CSS, SVG, WOFF,
the Semantic Web stack, XML, and a variety of APIs.
W3C develops these technical specifications and
guidelines through a process designed to maximize consensus about the content
of a technical report, to ensure high technical and editorial quality, and to
earn endorsement by W3C and the broader community.
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