Timothy Berners-Lee
Title: Professor and Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee
Full Name: Timothy John Berners-Lee
AKA: TimBL
Birthdate: June 8, 1955
Birthplace: London, England, United Kingdom
Occupation: Computer Scientist, Engineer, and MIT Professor
Profile: Credited with inventing the World Wide Web. Knighted in 2004.
Website: http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/
Number of Quotes: 96
A piece of information is really defined only by what it’s related to, and how
it's related. There really is little else to meaning. The structure is everything.
Any enterprise CEO really ought to be able to ask a question that involves connecting data across the organization, be able to run a company
effectively, and especially to be able to respond to unexpected events. Most organizations are missing this ability to connect all the data together.
Any good software engineer will tell you that a compiler and an interpreter are interchangeable.
Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch.
Reflecting on the creative, immersive nature of computing.
Celebrity damages private life.
Cool URIs don't change.
A fundamental principle of web architecture emphasizing stable, persistent links.
Compared even to the development of the phone or TV, the Web developed very quickly.
Customers need to be given control of their own data-not being tied into a certain
manufacturer so that when there are problems they are always obliged to go back to them.
Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.
Everybody who runs a Web site knows we're not assured of compatibility, and we could end up with a split.
I basically wrote the code and the specs and documentation for how the client and server talked to each other.
I don't know whether machine translation will eventually get good enough to allow us to browse
people's websites in different languages so you can see how they live in different countries.
I don't mind being, in the public context, referred to as the inventor of the World Wide Web. What
I like is that image to be separate from private life, because celebrity damages private life.
I have built a moat around myself, along with ways over that moat so that people can ask questions.
I hope we will use the Net to cross barriers and connect cultures.
I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the Transmission Control Protocol and domain name system ideas and—ta-da!—the World Wide Web.
Describing the synthesis that created the Web.
I myself feel that it is very important that my ISP supplies internet to my house like the
water company supplies water to my house. It supplies connectivity with no strings attached.
I should be able to pick which applications I use for managing my life, I should be able to pick which content I look at, and I
should be able to pick which device I use, which company I use for supplying my internet, and I'd like those to be independent choices.
I suppose it's amazing when you think how many things people get involved in that don't work.
I think IT projects are about supporting social systems - about communications between people and machines. They tend to fail due to cultural issues.
I think when you have a lot of jumbled up ideas they come together slowly over a period of several years.
I want to know if I look up a whole lot of books about some form of cancer that that's not going to get to my insurance
company and I'm going to find my insurance premium is going to go up by 5% because they've figured I'm looking at those books.
I was lucky enough to invent the Web at the time when the Internet already existed - and had for a decade and a half.
Acknowledging the foundational role of the pre-existing Internet.
I'm an optimist about humanity in general, I suppose.
I'm not a fan of giving a website a simple number like an IQ rating because like people they can vary in all
kinds of different ways. So I'd be interested in different organisations labelling websites in different ways.
I'm very aware there are lots of other people who are just bright and working just as hard, with just the same dedication to make the world a good place.
If you are not on the web, you will have problems accessing services.
If you're looking for the next big thing and you're looking at smartphones and the Web, you're
looking in the wrong direction. The next big thing is the Web happening on bigger things... like walls.
On the future of interfaces and ubiquitous computing.
Imagine that everything you are typing is being read by the person you are applying to for your first job.
Imagine that it's all going to be seen by your parents and your grandparents and your grandchildren as well.
In '93 to '94, every browser had its own flavor of HTML. So it was very difficult to
know what you could put in a Web page and reliably have most of your readership see it.
In many ways, people growing up with the Web and now the Semantic Web take the power at their fingertips for granted.
Innovation is serendipity, so you don’t know what people will make.
Intellectual property is an important legal and cultural issue. Society as a whole
has complex issues to face here: private ownership vs. open source, and so on.
IT professionals have a responsibility to understand the use of standards and the importance of making Web applications that work with any kind of device.
It was really hard explaining the Web before people just got used to it because they didn't even have words like click and jump and page.
It's amazing how quickly people on the internet can pick something up, but it's also amazing how quickly they can drop it.
It's difficult to imagine the power that you're going to have when so many different sorts of data are available.
On the potential of Linked Data and the Semantic Web.
It's interesting that people throughout the existence of the web have been concerned about monopolies.
It's not that the Internet has been a failure in bringing people together - it's
been an enormous success. But it has also brought people together to do bad things.
Acknowledging the dual-use nature of the Web.
Long Live the Web.
Title and rallying cry of a key 2010 Scientific American article outlining his vision and concerns.
Most larger companies now see that for the market to grow, Web infrastructure must be royalty-free.
My own personal preference is that the consumer, the individual person should be protected because individual people
and the difference between individual people and the diversity we have between people on the planet is so important.
On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12
people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable.
One of the issues of social networking silos is that they have the data and I don't.
One of the things I like about the computer that I use is that I can write a program on it or I can download a program on to it and run it. That's kind of
important to me, and that's also kind of important to the whole future of the internet... obviously a closed platform is a serious brake on innovation.
One way to think about the magnitude of the changes to come is to think about how you went about your business
before powerful Web search engines. You probably wouldn't have imagined that a world of answers would be available
to you in under a second. The next set of advances will have an different effect, but similar in magnitude.
People should be able to choose who they give their data to.
Advocating for user data ownership and control.
Physicists analyze systems. Web scientists, however, can create the systems.
Sites need to be able to interact in one single, universal space.
That idea of URL was the basic clue to the universality of the Web. That was the only thing I insisted upon.
The amount of control you have over somebody if you can monitor internet activity is amazing.
The challenge is to manage the Web in an open way-not too much bureaucracy, not subject to political or
commercial pressures. The U.S. should demonstrate that it is prepared to share control with the world.
The amount of control you have over somebody if you can monitor internet activity is amazing.
The decision to make the Web an open system was necessary for it to be universal.
Stating the core principle of openness.
The Domain Name Server (DNS) is the Achilles heel of the Web. The important thing is that it's managed responsibly.
The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information.
Defining the original vision.
The first thing any country does when it wants to take control is to try to control the Internet.
Warning about internet censorship and control.
The goal of the Web is to serve humanity.
Defining the ultimate purpose.
The Google algorithm was a significant development. I've had thank-you emails from people whose lives have
been saved by information on a medical website or who have found the love of their life on a dating website.
The important thing is the diversity available on the Web.
The Mobile Web Initiative is important - information must be made seamlessly available on any device.
The most important thing that was new was the idea of URI-or URL, that any piece of
information anywhere should have an identifier, which will allow you to get hold of it.
The original idea of the web was that it should be a collaborative space where you can communicate through sharing information.
The people who designed the tools that make the Net run had their own ideas for the future.
The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
Emphasizing Web Accessibility.
The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information
is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation.
The Semantic Web isn't inherently complex. The Semantic Web language, at its
heart, is very, very simple. It's just about the relationships between things.
The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past.
Expressing belief in the Web's unrealized potential.
The Web does not just connect machines, it connects people.
Stating its fundamental social nature.
The Web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect — to help people work together — and not as a technical toy.
Highlighting the social intent behind the technology.
The Web is now more critical to fundamental fairness and human rights than ever before.
On the Web's societal importance.
The Web is now philosophical engineering. Physics and the Web are both about the relationship between the small and the large.
The Web is the humanity connected by technology.
A poetic summary of its impact.
The world's urban poor and the illiterate are going to be increasingly disadvantaged and are in danger of being left behind. The web has
added a new dimension to the gap between the first world and the developing world. We have to start talking about a human right to connect.
There was a time when people felt the internet was another world, but now people realise it's a tool that we use in this world.
On the integration of the online and offline worlds.
Things can change so fast on the internet.
This is for everyone.
His iconic message displayed during the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.
Universal access to the web is so important. It's a basic right.
Arguing for internet access as a fundamental right.
Vague but exciting...
The famous note he wrote on the margin of his original 1989 proposal: Information Management: A Proposal.
We can't blame the technology when we make mistakes.
We could say we want the Web to reflect a vision of the world where everything is done
democratically. To do that, we get computers to talk with each other in such a way as to promote that ideal.
We need diversity of thought in the world to face new challenges.
Linking open information sharing to problem-solving.
We need to build a web that is truly for everyone: one that is accessible to all, from any
device, and one that gives everyone the power to shape their online experience and the web itself.
Outlining a vision for inclusivity and user agency.
We need to re-decentralize the Web.
Calling for a shift away from platform dominance towards user control.
We shouldn't build a technology to colour, or grey out, what people say. The media in general is
balanced, although there are a lot of issues to be addressed that the media rightly pick up on.
Web pages are designed for people. For the Semantic Web, we need to look at existing databases.
Web users ultimately want to get at data quickly and easily. They don't care as much about attractive sites and pretty design.
What I do has to be a function of what I can do, not a function of what people ask me to do.
What is a Web year now, about three months? And when people can browse around, discover new things, and
download them fast, when we all have agents - then Web years could slip by before human beings can notice.
What is amazing is that if one of these little [document] nodes is mentioned in
another place... you can move through the information space by clicking with a mouse.
Describing the revolutionary nature of hyperlinks in his original proposal.
Whatever the device you use for getting your information out, it should be the same information.
When it comes to professionalism, it makes sense to talk about being professional in
IT. Standards are vital so that IT professionals can provide systems that last.
When something is such a creative medium as the web, the limits to it are our imagination.
On the Web's boundless creative potential.
When you go onto the internet, if you really rummage around randomly then how do you hope to find something of any of value?
You affect the world by what you browse.
Suggesting user behavior shapes the online ecosystem.
Your data is your data. It belongs to you.
A clear statement on personal data ownership.
Last on Earth
