Tim Berners-Lee (b. 1955) invented the World Wide Web at CERN, writing the first browser, server, and the HTTP/HTML/URL standards. He has since championed a decentralized, user-controlled web.
Key works in the library
- Information Management: A Proposal (1989) — the proposal that became the Web.
- The Semantic Web (2001) — a web of machine-readable meaning.
Significance
Berners-Lee built a Web that was decentralized by default — no permission to publish or link. The Independent Internet argues that property eroded and must be rebuilt; his Semantic Web work is the bridge toward Web 4.0. The HTTP he authored is not frozen: it still evolves in the open under the IETF — for example the QUERY method (RFC 10008, 2026).