Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He founded and Directs the World Wide Consortium (W3C) the forum for technical development of the Web. He founded the Web Foundation whose mission is that the WWW serves Humanity, and co-founded the Open Data Institute in London. His research group at MIT's Computer Science and AI Lab ("CSAIL") plans to re-decentralize the Web. Tim spends a lot of time fighting for rights such as privacy, freedom and openness of the Web.
A graduate of Oxford University, Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory, in 1989. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.
He is the 3Com Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence ( CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he also heads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG). He is also a Professor in the Electronics and Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton, UK.
Tim is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards organization founded in 1994 which develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. He is a Director of the World Wide Web Foundation which was launched in 2009 to coordinate efforts to further the potential of the Web to benefit humanity.
In 2011 he was named to the Board of Trustees of the Ford Foundation, a globally oriented private foundation with the mission of advancing human welfare. He has promoted open government data globally and is a member of the UK's Transparency Board. He is President of London's Open Data Institute.
In 2001 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has been the recipient of several international awards including the Japan Prize, the Prince of Asturias Foundation Prize, the Millennium Technology Prize and Germany's Die Quadriga award. In 2004 he was knighted by H.M. Queen Elizabeth and in 2007 he was awarded the Order of Merit. In 2009 he was elected a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of "Weaving the Web".
On March 18 2013, Tim, along with Vinton Cerf, Robert Kahn, Louis Pouzin
and Marc Andreesen, was awarded the Queen
Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for "ground-breaking innovation in
engineering that has been of global benefit to humanity."
If you have a serious comment on things I have signed, then do email me. I am also always open to discussion with W3C Advisory Committee representatives.
Email is safe unless it contains programs. (Data and documents are fine, programs are not). If you send me a program, I will not run it, as it could damage my system and could be a virus.
These are good rules when emailing anyone.
Please use my full name in the "To" line with my email address, as this will make your message look less like spam. This will happen automatically if you have me in your address book. If you just type in my email address, I probably won't see your mail.
If you want to know what we are working on now, look at the W3C site and check out all the activities at W3C. Also see:
Essays and articles in text form
I do a limited amount of speaking. If you have something you think I would be interested in speaking at, for academic events email timbl+speaking@w3.org with details of the event, projected audience size and profile, location and date.
My professional speaking is handled by Don Walker at the Harry Walker Agency, donw@harrywalker.com whom you can contact directly (Cc me as a above).
Please use an email subject line with relevant information such as: : "Keynote in Milan, 23 Febrary 2100 at ISWC2100" including the date and place proposed.
If I use slides (I often do not) I use a laptop -- currently a Mac running OSX. I do not need audio from the laptop.
If you need a photo for publication, please complete the W3C photo request form. You do not need an account to complete the form, but an email address is required.
Alternatively, you can ask:
If you need an interview for an article, please check the
first, then please use email rather than phone. Please contact w3t-pr@w3.org the general PR request line at W3C, rather than Amy van der Hiel (my assistant) or Coralie Mercier (Head of Communications at W3C) to set up interviews with me or with other W3C staff.
[Photo: in Sheldonian, Oxford: LeFevre communications, 2001.]
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