Berners-Lee was born inLondon on 8 June 1955,[24] the son of mathematicians and computer scientistsMary Lee Berners-Lee (née Woods; 1924–2017) andConway Berners-Lee (1921–2019). His parents were both fromBirmingham and worked on theFerranti Mark 1, the first commercially built computer. He has three younger siblings; his brother,Mike, is a professor of ecology andclimate change management.
After graduation, Berners-Lee worked as an engineer at the telecommunications companyPlessey inPoole, Dorset.[24] In 1978, he joined D. G. Nash inFerndown, Dorset, where he helped create typesetting software for printers.[24]
Berners-Lee worked as anindependent contractor atCERN from June to December 1980. While inGeneva, he proposed a project based on the concept ofhypertext, to facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers.[27] To demonstrate it, he built a prototype system namedENQUIRE.[28]
After leaving CERN in late 1980, he went to work at John Poole's Image Computer Systems, Ltd, in Bournemouth, Dorset.[29] He ran the company's technical side for three years.[30] The project he worked on was a "real-timeremote procedure call" which gave him experience incomputer networking.[29] In 1984, he returned to CERN as a fellow.[28]
In 1989, CERN was the largest Internet node in Europe and Berners-Lee saw an opportunity to join hypertext with the Internet:
I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to theTCP andDNS ideas and—ta-da!—the World Wide Web.
Creating the web was really an act of desperation, because the situation without it was very difficult when I was working at CERN later. Most of the technology involved in the web, like the hypertext, like the Internet, multifont text objects, had all been designed already. I just had to put them together. It was a step of generalising, going to a higher level of abstraction, thinking about all the documentation systems out there as being possibly part of a larger imaginary documentation system.
Berners-Lee wrote his proposal in March 1989 and redistributed it in 1990. It then was accepted by his manager, Mike Sendall, who called his proposals "vague, but exciting".[33]Robert Cailliau had independently proposed a project to develop a hypertext system at CERN, and joined Berners-Lee as a partner in his efforts to get the web off the ground.[28] They used similar ideas to those underlying theENQUIRE system to create theWorld Wide Web, for which Berners-Lee designed and built the firstweb browser. His software also functioned as an editor (calledWorldWideWeb, running on theNeXTSTEP operating system), and the first Web server,CERN httpd (Hypertext Transfer Protocoldaemon).
Berners-Lee published the first website, which described the project itself, on 20 December 1990; it was available to the Internet from the CERN network. The site provided an explanation of what the World Wide Web was, and how people could use a browser and set up a web server and a website.[34][35][36][26] On 6 August 1991, Berners-Lee first posted, onUsenet, a public invitation for collaboration with the WorldWideWeb project.[37]
In a list of 80 cultural moments that shaped the world, chosen by a panel of 25 eminent scientists, academics, writers and world leaders in 2016, the invention of the World Wide Web was ranked number one, with the entry stating: "The fastest growing communications medium of all time, the Internet has changed the shape of modern life forever. We can connect with each other instantly, all over the world."[38]
In 1994, Berners-Lee founded the W3C at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. It comprised various companies willing to create standards and recommendations to improve the quality of the Web. Berners-Lee made his idea available freely, with no patent and no royalties due. The World Wide Web Consortium decided that its standards should be based on royalty-free technology, so that anyone could easily adopt them.[39]
In 2001, Berners-Lee became a patron of the East Dorset Heritage Trust, having previously lived inColehill inWimborne,East Dorset.[41] In 2004, he accepted a chair in computer science at the School of Electronics and Computer Science,University of Southampton, Hampshire, to work on theSemantic Web.[42][43]
In aTimes article in October 2009, Berners-Lee admitted thatthe initial pair of slashes ("//") in a web address were "unnecessary". He told the newspaper that he easily could have designed web addresses without the slashes. "There you go, it seemed like a good idea at the time," he said in his lighthearted apology.[44]
Tim Berners-Lee at theHome Office, London, on 11 March 2010
By 2010, he createddata.gov.uk alongsideNigel Shadbolt. Of theOrdnance Survey data in April 2010, Berners-Lee said: "The changes signal a wider cultural change in government based on an assumption that information should be in the public domain unless there is a good reason not to—not the other way around." He added: "Greater openness, accountability and transparency in Government will give people greater choice and make it easier for individuals to get more directly involved in issues that matter to them."[46]
Berners-Lee is one of the pioneer voices in favour ofnet neutrality,[48] and has expressed the view thatISPs should supply "connectivity with no strings attached", neither controlling nor monitoring customers' browsing activity without their express consent.[49][50] He advocates the idea that net neutrality is a kind of human network right: "Threats to the Internet, such as companies or governments that interfere with or snoop on Internet traffic, compromise basic human network rights."[51] Berners-Lee participated in an open letter to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He and 20 other Internet pioneers urged the FCC to cancel a vote on 14 December 2017 to uphold net neutrality. The letter was addressed to SenatorRoger Wicker, SenatorBrian Schatz, RepresentativeMarsha Blackburn and Representative Michael F. Doyle.[52]
Berners-Lee was honoured as the "Inventor of the World Wide Web" during the2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, in which he appeared working with a vintageNeXT Computer.[53] He tweeted "This is for everyone"[54] which appeared in LED lights attached to the chairs of the audience.[53] In 2025, he released a book on thehistory of the Internet by the same name.[55]
Berners-Lee joined the board of advisors of start-upState.com, based in London.[56] As of May 2012, he is president of theOpen Data Institute,[57] which he and Shadbolt co-founded in 2012.
TheAlliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) was launched in 2013, and Berners-Lee is leading the coalition of public and private organisations that includesGoogle,Facebook,Intel andMicrosoft. The A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing world where, in 2013, only 31% of people were online. Berners-Lee will work with those aiming to decrease Internet access prices so that they fall below theUN Broadband Commission's worldwide target of 5% of monthly income.[58]
Tim Berners-Lee at theScience Museum for the Web@30 event, March 2019
From the mid-2010s, Berners-Lee initially remained neutral on the emergingEncrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposal with its controversialdigital rights management (DRM) implications.[62] In March 2017 he felt he had to take a position, which was to support the EME proposal.[62] He reasoned EME's virtues whilst noting DRM was inevitable.[62] As W3C director, he approved the finalised specification in July 2017.[63][62] His stance was opposed by some, includingElectronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the anti-DRM campaignDefective by Design and theFree Software Foundation.[63] Concerns included being not supportive of the Internet's open philosophy against commercial interests and risks of users being forced to use a particularweb browser to view specific DRM content.[62] The EFF raised a formal appeal. It did not succeed, and the EME specification became a formal W3C recommendation in September 2017.[64]
On 30 September 2018, Berners-Lee announced hisopen-source startupInrupt to fuel a commercial ecosystem around theSolid project, which aims to give users more control over their personal data and let them choose where the data goes, who's allowed to see certain elements and which apps are allowed to see that data.[65][66]
In November 2019, at theInternet Governance Forum in Berlin, Berners-Lee and the WWWF launchedContract for the Web, a campaign initiative to persuade governments, companies and citizens to commit to nine principles to stop "misuse", with the warning that "if we don't act now – and act together – to prevent the web being misused by those who want to exploit, divide and undermine, we are at risk of squandering [its potential for good]".[67]
He wove the World Wide Web and created a mass medium for the 21st century. The World Wide Web is Berners-Lee's alone. He designed it. He loosed it on the world. And he more than anyone else has fought to keep it open, nonproprietary and free.
Berners-Lee has received many awards and honours. He wasknighted by QueenElizabeth II in the2004 New Year Honours "for services to the global development of the Internet", and was invested formally on 16 July 2004.[20][21]
On 13 June 2007, he was appointed to theOrder of Merit (OM), an order restricted to 24 living members, plus any honorary members.[68] Bestowing membership of the Order of Merit is within the personal purview of the Sovereign and does not require recommendation by ministers or the Prime Minister.
Berners-Lee has said "I like to keep work and personal life separate."[77]
Berners-Lee has married three times. Following final exams in Oxford, he married Jane Northcote (daughter of Cambridge biologistDon Northcote) in 1976. They moved together to Poole to work at Plessey, and then moved in 1980 to work at CERN together for a six-month contract. After their return to Britain, they decided to end their marriage.[78]
In 1990, Berners-Lee married Nancy Carlson, an American computer programmer. She was also working in Switzerland at theWorld Health Organization.[79] They had two children and divorced in 2011. In 2014, he marriedRosemary Leith at theChapel Royal,St. James's Palace in London.[80] Leith is a Canadian Internet and banking entrepreneur and a founding director of Berners-Lee'sWorld Wide Web Foundation.[81] The couple also collaborate on venture capital to support artificial intelligence companies.[82]
Berners-Lee was raised as anAnglican, but he turned away from religion in his youth. After he became a parent, he became aUnitarian Universalist (UU).[83] When asked whether he believes in God, he said: "Not in the sense of most people. I'm atheist and Unitarian Universalist."[84]
Berners-Lee viewsWikipedia as probably the best single example of what he wanted theWorld Wide Web to be. At the end of Chapter 7 ofThis is for Everyone, he writes:
Wikipedia has grown to contain millions of articles on every subject known to our species – an invaluable repository of human knowledge that I consider one of the modern wonders of the world. What made this system work wasintercreativity – a group of people being creative. Wikipedia is probably the best single example of what I wanted the web to be.[93]
Gaines, Ann (2001).Tim Berners-Lee and the Development of the World Wide Web. Unlocking the Secrets of Science. Mitchell Lane Publishers.ISBN1-58415-096-3.
Stewart, Melissa (2001).Tim Berners-Lee: Inventor of the World Wide Web. Ferguson's Career Biographies. Ferguson Publishing Company.ISBN0-89434-367-X. Children's biography.
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