Tim Berners-Lee facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tim Berners-Lee
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Berners-Lee in 2024
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| Born |
Timothy John Berners-Lee
8 June 1955 London, England
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| Education | Queen's College, Oxford (BA) |
| Known for | Invention of the World Wide Web |
| Spouse(s) |
Jane Northcote
(m. 1976, divorced)Nancy Carlson
(m. 1990; div. 2011)Rosemary Leith
(m. 2014) |
| Children | 2 children 3 step-children |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
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Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, born on June 8, 1955, is a British computer scientist. He is famous for inventing the World Wide Web. He also created HTML (the language for web pages), the URL system (web addresses), and HTTP (the rules for sending information online). Today, he is a research fellow at the University of Oxford and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In 1989, Berners-Lee suggested a new way to manage information. By late 1990, he had made the first successful connection between a web browser and a web server using the Internet. He built the very first web browser and web server. He also helped the Web grow into what it is today. He founded and is the director emeritus of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This group makes sure the Web continues to develop and improve. He also helped start the World Wide Web Foundation.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee has received many honors for his work. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II made him a knight. In 2016, he won the Turing Award, a top prize in computer science. Time magazine also named him one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.
Contents
Growing Up: Tim Berners-Lee's Childhood
Tim Berners-Lee was born in London, England, on June 8, 1955. His parents, Mary Lee Woods and Conway Berners-Lee, were both mathematicians and computer scientists. They worked on one of the first commercially built computers.
As a child, Berners-Lee loved watching trains. He learned about electronics by playing with a model railway. He went to Sheen Mount Primary School and then Emanuel School.
In 1976, he earned a degree in physics from The Queen's College, Oxford. While at university, he even built his own computer using an old television set.
Building the Internet: Tim Berners-Lee's Career
After college, Berners-Lee worked as an engineer at a company called Plessey. In 1978, he helped create software for printers.
From June to December 1980, Berners-Lee worked at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is a large scientific research organization. There, he suggested a project to help scientists share and update information easily. He created a test system called ENQUIRE to show how it could work. This system used a concept called hypertext, which lets you link different pieces of information together.
After leaving CERN, he worked on computer networking projects. In 1984, he returned to CERN.
By 1989, CERN had the largest Internet connection in Europe. Berners-Lee saw a chance to combine his hypertext idea with the Internet. He realized he could create a global system for sharing information. He later said that creating the Web felt like an act of "desperation" because sharing information was so hard before it existed. He took existing ideas like hypertext and the Internet's communication rules and put them together.
Berners-Lee wrote his first proposal for the World Wide Web in March 1989. His manager thought it was "vague, but exciting." Robert Cailliau joined him, and together they worked to make the Web a reality. Berners-Lee designed and built the first web browser, which was also an editor. He also created the first web server, called CERN httpd.
On December 20, 1990, Berners-Lee published the very first website. It explained what the World Wide Web was and how people could use it. On August 6, 1991, he invited others to join the WorldWideWeb project.
The invention of the World Wide Web was a huge moment in history. In 2016, experts called it the number one cultural moment that shaped the world. They noted that the Internet changed modern life forever, allowing instant connections globally.
In 1994, Berners-Lee started the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This group works to create standards for the Web. Berners-Lee made his invention available for free, without patents or fees. This meant anyone could use and build upon his ideas.
In 2004, Berners-Lee became a professor of computer science at the University of Southampton. He worked on a project called the Semantic Web, which aims to make web data more understandable for computers.
In 2009, Berners-Lee jokingly admitted that the "//" slashes in web addresses were "unnecessary." He said it seemed like a good idea at the time!
Protecting the Web: Tim Berners-Lee's Efforts
Sir Tim Berners-Lee has worked to make government information more open. In 2010, he helped create data.gov.uk, a website that shares public data. He believes that governments should share information unless there's a very good reason not to. This helps people get more involved in important issues.
In 2009, Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web Foundation (WWWF). This organization works to make the Web a public good and a basic right for everyone.
Berners-Lee strongly supports net neutrality. This idea means that Internet providers should offer "connectivity with no strings attached." They should not control or watch what customers do online without permission. He sees net neutrality as a human right for the digital age. He has spoken out against anything that might interfere with Internet traffic.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in London, Berners-Lee was honored as the "Inventor of the World Wide Web." He appeared working on an old computer, and his tweet "This is for everyone" lit up the stadium.
In 2012, he co-founded the Open Data Institute. This group helps make data available for everyone to use and share. In 2013, he helped launch the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI). This group works to make Internet access cheaper in developing countries. Their goal is to help more people around the world get online.
Berners-Lee leads the Decentralized Information Group at MIT. He is also working on a project called Solid. Solid aims to give users more control over their personal data and privacy online. In 2016, he also joined the Department of Computer Science at Oxford University.
In 2018, Berners-Lee started an open-source company called Inrupt. This company supports the Solid project, helping people gain more control over their online information.
In 2019, Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web Foundation launched the Contract for the Web. This campaign asks governments, companies, and individuals to follow nine principles. These principles aim to stop the Web from being misused and to protect its potential for good.
Awards and Recognition for Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Tim Berners-Lee has received many awards and honors for his groundbreaking work.
- In 2001, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
- In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II made him a knight for his contributions to the Internet.
- In 2007, he was appointed to the Order of Merit, a very special honor given by the Sovereign.
- He has received honorary degrees from many universities, including Harvard and Yale.
- In 2012, he was featured in a new version of the famous Beatles album cover, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This artwork celebrated British cultural figures.
- In 2013, he received the first Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
- In 2017, he was awarded the Association for Computing Machinery's Turing Award. This award recognized his invention of the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the basic rules that allowed the Web to grow.
Tim Berners-Lee's Life Outside Work
Sir Tim Berners-Lee prefers to keep his work and personal life separate.
He has been married three times and has children. In 2014, he married Rosemary Leith. She is an Internet and banking entrepreneur and a founding director of his World Wide Web Foundation.
He explored different beliefs and became a Unitarian Universalist, a religion that encourages personal spiritual growth and understanding. He has shared that his beliefs are personal and don't fit traditional ideas of God.
In 2021, the original code for the Web was sold as a special digital item called a non-fungible token (NFT). The sale raised over $5 million, which was used to fund initiatives by Berners-Lee and his wife.
In 2025, Berners-Lee published a book called This is For Everyone. It tells the story of the Internet's history. Also in 2025, he was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs.
Tim Berners-Lee's Thoughts on the Web
Berners-Lee believes that Wikipedia is a great example of what he wanted the World Wide Web to be. He wrote that Wikipedia, with its millions of articles, is an "invaluable repository of human knowledge." He considers it one of the modern wonders of the world. He feels it shows how people can be creative together, which he calls "intercreativity."
Books by Tim Berners-Lee
- This is For Everyone (2025)
See also
In Spanish: Tim Berners-Lee para niños
 | Georgia Louise Harris Brown |
 | Julian Abele |
 | Norma Merrick Sklarek |
 | William Sidney Pittman |
