Tim Berners-Lee facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tim Berners-Lee
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Berners-Lee in 2014
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Timothy John Berners-Lee
8 June 1955 London, England
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| Education | The Queen's College, Oxford (BA) |
| Known for | Invention of the World Wide Web |
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Nancy Carlson
(m. 1990; div. 2011)Rosemary Leith
(m. 2014) |
| Children | 2 children; 3 step-children |
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Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist. He is famous for inventing the World Wide Web. He also created the HTML language for web pages, the URL system for web addresses, and HTTP for sending information online.
He works as a research fellow at the University of Oxford. He is also a professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In 1989, Berners-Lee suggested a new way to manage information. By November of that year, he had made the first successful connection between a web browser (HTTP client) and a web server. This was done using the Internet.
He built the first web browser and web server. He helped the Web grow very quickly. He is the founder and director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This group makes sure the Web keeps developing. He also helped start the World Wide Web Foundation.
In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II made Berners-Lee a knight for his important work. In 2016, he won the Turing Award. This award was for inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the main rules that let the Web grow so big. Time magazine also named him one of the "100 Most Important People of the 20th century."
Contents
Early Life and Education
Berners-Lee was born in London, England, on 8 June 1955. His parents, Mary Lee Woods and Conway Berners-Lee, were both mathematicians and computer scientists. They worked on the Ferranti Mark 1, which was one of the first computers ever sold.
As a child, he loved watching trains. He learned about electronics by playing with a model railway.
From 1973 to 1976, he studied physics at The Queen's College, Oxford. While at university, he built his own computer from an old television set.
How the Web Was Born
After college, Berners-Lee worked as an engineer. In 1980, he worked at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is a big science lab. He saw that scientists needed a better way to share and update information.
He suggested a project based on "hypertext." Hypertext lets you link different pieces of information together. To show how it worked, he built a test system called ENQUIRE.
In 1989, Berners-Lee realized he could connect hypertext with the Internet. He thought, "I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and—ta-da!—the World Wide Web."
He wrote down his idea in March 1989. His manager thought it was "vague, but exciting." Another scientist, Robert Cailliau, joined him. Together, they worked to create the World Wide Web.
Berners-Lee designed and built the first web browser. This browser also worked as an editor. He also created the first Web server, called CERN HTTPd.
On 20 December 1990, he published the first website. It explained what the World Wide Web was. It also showed how people could use a browser and set up their own web server. On 6 August 1991, he invited others to work with him on the WorldWideWeb project.
The invention of the World Wide Web has been called one of the most important cultural moments in history. It changed how people connect instantly around the world.
Making the Web Open for Everyone
In 1994, Berners-Lee started the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This group brings together companies to create rules and standards for the Web.
Berners-Lee made his idea for the Web available for free. There were no patents or fees. The W3C decided that its standards should also be free to use. This way, anyone could use them to build on the Web.
In 2004, he became a professor at the University of Southampton. He worked on something called the Semantic Web. This is about making web data easier for computers to understand.
In 2009, Berners-Lee joked that the "//" in web addresses were "unnecessary." He said he could have designed web addresses without them.
Working for a Better Internet
Berners-Lee has worked to make government data open to the public. In 2010, he helped create data.gov.uk in the UK. He believes that information should be public unless there's a good reason not to. This helps people get more involved in important issues.
In 2009, he launched the World Wide Web Foundation (WWWF). This group works to make the Web a public good and a basic right.
Berners-Lee strongly supports net neutrality. This means that internet providers (ISPs) should treat all internet traffic equally. They should not control or watch what customers do online without permission. He believes net neutrality is a human right for the internet.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, Berners-Lee was honored as the "Inventor of the World Wide Web." He appeared working on an old computer. He tweeted "This is for everyone," and the words lit up on the audience's chairs.
He is also the president of the Open Data Institute. He co-founded it in 2012. This group works to make data open and useful for everyone.
In 2013, he helped launch the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI). This group wants to make internet access cheaper, especially in developing countries. Their goal is to make sure more people can get online.
Berners-Lee leads a project called Solid. This project aims to give users more control over their personal data online. It lets people choose where their data is stored and who can see it.
In 2018, he started a company called Inrupt. This company helps build tools for the Solid project. It wants to create a system where users truly own their data.
In 2019, Berners-Lee and the WWWF launched the Contract for the Web. This campaign asks governments, companies, and people to follow nine rules. These rules are meant to stop the Web from being misused and to protect its potential for good.
Awards and Recognition
Berners-Lee has received many awards.
- In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II made him a knight.
- In 2007, he was given the Order of Merit (OM). This is a very special honor with only 24 living members.
- He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2001.
- He has received honorary degrees from many universities, including Harvard and Yale.
- In 2012, he was included in a new version of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover. This artwork celebrated important British cultural figures.
- In 2013, he won the first Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
- In 2017, he received the Association for Computing Machinery's Turing Award. This is one of the highest honors in computer science.
Personal Life
Berners-Lee likes to keep his work and personal life separate.
He married Nancy Carlson, a computer programmer, in 1990. They had two children. Later, in 2014, he married Rosemary Leith. She is an internet and banking expert and helped start the World Wide Web Foundation with him.
Berners-Lee was raised as an Anglican. As an adult, he became a Unitarian Universalist. He has said he is an atheist and a Unitarian Universalist.
In 2021, the original web's source code was sold as a non-fungible token (NFT) for over $5 million. The money was used to support projects by Berners-Lee and his wife.
See also
In Spanish: Tim Berners-Lee para niños
