Weaver Demo

In 1989, a British computer scientist named Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal to his managers at CERN titled “Information Management: A Proposal.” His supervisor famously scribbled “Vague but exciting” on the cover. That understated reaction belied the enormity of what was to come.

The Problem

CERN was drowning in information. Thousands of researchers from around the world collaborated on experiments, generating massive amounts of documentation spread across incompatible systems. Finding and linking related information was a constant struggle. Berners-Lee saw this as a universal problem, not just at CERN, but everywhere people needed to share knowledge.

The Solution

Berners-Lee’s insight was to combine three existing ideas into something greater than the sum of its parts:

• HTML (HyperText Markup Language): a simple markup language for structuring documents
• HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): a protocol for transferring those documents between machines
• URLs (Uniform Resource Locators): a consistent addressing scheme so any document could be found

By late 1990, he had built the first web browser (called WorldWideWeb), the first web server, and the first website, all running on a NeXT computer at CERN. A handwritten label on the machine read: “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER IT DOWN!!”

Opening the Floodgates

Perhaps the most consequential decision Berners-Lee ever made was what he chose not to do. In 1993, CERN released the World Wide Web software into the public domain, making it free for anyone to use and build upon. There would be no patents, no licensing fees, no royalties. Berners-Lee has said that had the web been proprietary, it never would have taken off.

That decision to keep the web open and free is what allowed it to grow from a tool for physicists into the connective tissue of modern civilization. Within a few years, the web went from a single server in a Swiss lab to millions of sites spanning the globe.

A Legacy of Openness

Berners-Lee went on to found the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to steward web standards, and has spent decades advocating for an open, decentralized web. He was knighted in 2004 for his contributions, and in the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony in London, he tweeted from the stadium: “This is for everyone.”

The web remains one of the most transformative inventions in human history. Not because of the technology alone, but because its creator chose to give it away.