Tim Berners-Lee

Born

1955 · London, England

Roots

English; both parents were early computer scientists

Family

Middle class

His mother and father both programmed the Ferranti Mark 1, the first commercial computer; math at the dinner table was normal.

Education

Queen's College, Oxford (physics)

Started with

A soldered computer

Banned from Oxford's computer lab for hacking, he built his own machine from a microprocessor and an old television.

Affiliations & societies

Royal SocietyDocumented

Elected a Fellow in 2001; also appointed to the Order of Merit.

Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1. 1980 · age 25
   ENQUIRE

   A personal hypertext notebook built as a CERN contractor — the seed.

2. 1989 · age 33
   "Vague, but exciting"

   His boss's verdict, written on the cover of the proposal that becomes the Web.

3. 1990 · age 35
   HTTP, HTML, and the first browser

   Built on a NeXT machine; the first website goes live at info.cern.ch.

4. 1993 · age 37
   Royalty-free, forever

   CERN releases the protocols without fees — the decision that lets the Web beat its licensed rivals and belong to everyone.

5. 1994 · age 39
   W3C

   Founds the standards consortium at MIT rather than a company.

6. 2012 · age 57
   "This is for everyone"

   Tweets it from the middle of the London Olympics opening ceremony, spelled out in stadium lights.