tim berners-lee

Two decades ago today, the European particle accelerator called CERN gave birth to what's known as the open Web -- a technology that anyone can build without paying licensing or royalty fees.

But as the Web has grown ever more popular and sophisticated, proprietary technology poses a challenge to that philosophy of openness. The challenge is most clear in the area of video, where patents and copy protection are at odds with the Web's openness.

Tim Berners-Lee, a physicist at CERN, started developing what he called the World Wide Web in 1989. After CERN released the software for … Read more

Queen Elizabeth has honored five engineers who created the Internet and World Wide Web in her first Prize for Engineering.

Louis Pouzin, Robert Kahn, Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee, and Marc Andreessen will share an award of 1 million pounds. They are credited for helping spawn the Internet, (Sorry, Al Gore. You didn't quite make the cut.), which the prize site said is "an engineering achievement that has changed the direction of the world."

"The Internet and WWW led to a communications revolution of unprecedented power and impact," the site said.

Pouzin, Kahn, and Cerf made … Read more

He stopped well short of saying information wants to be free, but Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, said today the world would be better with some judicious liberation.

Speaking at the 2013 World Economic Forum today in Davos, Switzerland, Berners-Lee called on social-networking sites, academics, musicians, and governments to share more information online.

In earlier days of computing, people had full control over their own information because it was all stored on their own computer in front of them. Now, people store data with online services that deprive them of that control.

"They put their … Read more

If you ask the folks who had a hand in the creation of the Internet, odds are you'll get a very different read on a regulation idea likely to turn into a lightning rod for controversy at a highly anticipated meeting of the UN's International Telecommunications Union.

The conference was called to rewrite a 1988 treaty that governs international communications traffic, called the International Telecommunications Regulations (PDF).

But in the run-up to the conclave, which takes place this week in in Dubai, several technology companies and Internet free-speech advocates, as well as the European Parliament and the United … Read more

Forget about the ripped-and-rugged sprinters and shot-putters, bring on the gold-medal geeks.

The opening ceremony of this summer's London Olympics obliged that sentiment, as Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee got the star treatment during the extravaganza.… Read more

I never knew that Tim Berners-Lee was a cross-dresser.

I don't mean to bring it up to expose him. I bring it up merely to celebrate the fact.

For in 8 days' time, the first photo ever uploaded to the Web will be 20 years old. And why would a picture of a wonderful all-girl singing group be the first ever out there on the WWW?

Well, partly, a report suggests, because of Berners-Lee's cross-dressing.

I lean heavily for this information on the wonderful tale told by Motherboard. (I've also emailed Berners-Lee, but haven't heard back.)… Read more

The Internet Hall of Fame officially kicked off today, inducting big tech names like Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee, Mitchell Baker, and Brewster Kahle. This was the inaugural award ceremony sponsored by the Internet Society to celebrate more than 30 pioneers, innovators, and global connectors of the Web.

"This historic assembly of Internet visionaries, innovators, and leaders represents an extraordinary breadth of vision and work," Internet Society president and CEO Lynn St. Armour said in a statement. "While the inductees have extremely diverse backgrounds and represent many different countries, each individual has an incredible passion for their work.&… Read more

Tim Berners-Lee, known as the father of the World Wide Web, says Internet users should demand all of their inaccessible data from Facebook, Google, and every other major Web site.

"One of the issues of social networking silos is that they have the data and I don't," Berners-Lee told The Guardian in an interview published today. "There are no programs that I can run on my computer which allow me to use all the data in each of the social networking systems that I use plus all the data in my calendar plus in my running … Read more

The man credited with inventing the World Wide Web has come out against the British government's contentious plans to monitor all Internet communication.

In an extensive interview with U.K. newspaper the Guardian, Tim Berners-Lee said the type of surveillance that the government was proposing was tantamount to the "destruction of human rights" and "the most important thing to do is to stop the bill as it is at the moment."

The plan being pushed by the government, which was announced this month, entails British intelligence agencies observing every U.K. resident's Internet use, … Read more