Talk:Tim Berners-Lee

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[edit] Gutenberg

Yet their unique combination into a simple and cohesive concept deservedly rewarded the genius of Tim Berners-Lee with the credit for the greatest human breakthrough since Gutenberg

Oh, please. Thats way over the top GWO

Well, in one sense the comparison seems quite apt. Gutenberg took existing technology, improved it, and introduced the first 'mass-market' application. Ditto Berners-Lee. Matthew Woodcraft

Yet he did it so poorly. Why SGML? Why not have customizable tags from the ground up (instead of allowing W3C to staple it to the mangy dog's forehead with the mincy marketing driven name XML)?

-AnonymousCoward (62.49.130.172)

Why not wait until he had the perfect technical solution? The idea he came up with did rather catch on, what were the practical alternatives? Microsoft Blackbird?

[edit] Enquire Within

Enquire Within Upon Everything, the book Berners-Lee named his prototype after, is currently doing the rounds on Distributed Proofreaders. Should I put in a link once it becomes available? -- Jim Regan 14:32, 20 Sep 2003 (UTC)

The relevant quote is here:

"When I first began tinkering with a software program that eventually gave rise to the idea of the World Wide Web, I named it Enquire, short for Enquire Within upon Everything, a musty old book of Victorian advice I noticed as a child in my parents' house outside London. With its title suggestive of magic, the book served as a portal to a world of information, everything from how to remove clothing stains to tips on investing money. Not a perfect analogy for the Web, but a primitive starting point."

-- Jim Regan 20:53, 24 Sep 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Writers

Does anybody's who's written a book get to be listed in Category:Writers? I'm pretty dubious about the appropriateness of including Mr. Berners-Lee in said category - not least because I'm trying to clear everybody out into genre sub-categories, and can't figure out what sub-category he would possibly belong to. john k 05:08, 5 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Not everyone who writes, writes books. But what about category:autobiographers?Andy Mabbett 08:13, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Al Gore invented the www?

This seems to be a bit much. I don't claim to be an expert on Al Gore, but I know he advocated strengthening the "internet superhighway" and such, but invented? Doubtful. This is related to the belief, joking or otherwise that Al Gore CLAIMED to have invented the internet. Does anyone have more information on Al Gore's true role here? 66.95.139.107 12:54, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Yep, right here. Good old Snopes. Mr. Billion 07:34, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Furthermore, the Internet and the World Wide Web are two different things. Related, but different. RealGrouchy 16:22, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

The Al Gore statement under "See Also" seems entirely irrelvent to the article. Perhaps it deserves a mention under Internet, but not under the biographical article of a, for the most part, unrelated person. -- Exitmoose 06:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Broken Link

The link to CERN seems to be broken. Gerry Lynch 16:44, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Huh?

It was also at Oxford where he was caught with a friend and was banned from using the university computer soon after.

So exactly why was he banned from using the university computer? Because he was caught with a friend? Is being with friends against the rules? Was he doing something wrong to the computers with his friend? The reader is left in the dark here. [[User:Livajo|力伟|☺]] 22:44, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

..yeah, I also think this should be explained further 'cause it sounds like "Timmy" is not straight :)

[edit] Computer Lib / Dream Machines

Where is a ref to this book? — Xiong (talk) 03:13, 2005 Mar 24 (UTC)

[edit] Boston link

The Boston link could do with updating to point to the appropriate Boston article, but I'm not sure which it is. --John 23:16, 11 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Removing Spinning the Semantic Web

Spinning the Semantic Web isn't a work of Tim Beners-Lee. He only contributed the forward which normally doesn't make you an author or editor of the work, or, indeed, really a significant contributer (especially for a technical work like this). It's more like an endorsement. If there needs to be another work, I would suggest the Scientific American article on the Semantic Web. He's acutally a co-author and it's one of the more widely cited articles around. If no one objects, I'll make these changes. Bparsia 03:59, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Huh? 2

Re: CSS It was not until 2000 and 2001 that popular browsers began to support this standard, which shows Berners-Lee's first goal to maintain the freedom of the Web.

I don't get it... what shows that his first goal is to maintain the freedom of the web? David Bergan 17:35, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] == One of the Great Men in History ==

I hope that Tim Berners-Lee will be place among the great contributors to communications and relations among the peoples of the world. I think he has invented another avenue for pursuing the truth or finding it. I'm not saying the Web is all truth, but it has made the avenues of communication available to all , and destroyed the previous monopolization efforts by some. I wrote to Tim once, and was unexpectedly honored by a personal response. His book is good reading. Mr. Lee deserves our admiration and thanks.

--USPatriot 18:26, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

I think everyone agrees that TBL is very important. But on the other hand, there was a lot of luck involved. From my perspective, the most important thing was that no one took up his suggestion to implement hypertext linking on top of the TCP/IP stack. He had been talking to a lot of people about his idea but no one took him seriously. If someone else had, we would have been celebrating that person today and Berners-Lee would only have had minor credit as the person who "suggested" the project. What was really amazing was that he was so fascinated by hypertext and the Internet that he went ahead and implemented the idea himself in order to prove that it was possible.

The really hilarious thing is that Doug Engelbart had years and years to think about ARPANET and hypertext (he was there in the beginning after all) and never put it all together and got at least a small version of networked hypertext working (Engelbart's original NLS program was on the old monolithic model where everyone had to be logged into the same mainframe). The same thing goes for Ted Nelson. Now Berners-Lee, in the words of one journalist, has "eaten their lunch." --Coolcaesar 21:53, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

"Chance favours the prepared mind". Yes, luck may have been involved. But name one invention or important discovery where there wasn't a great deal of luck involved. No, I think this man should have gotten the Nobel Prize. He has given the world a gift that can never be fully appreciated. Thank you Sir Timothy. Wandering Star 00:32, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

You can't get the Nobel Prize for inventions like the Web. Only for scientific discoveries (that is, discovering a law of nature). Though I agree there should be an international prize for engineers and their inventions. Anyway, TBL was already honored by the Queen. --Coolcaesar 02:47, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

There is an international prize for such inventions - the Millenium Prize, worth $1.2 million - TBL received it in 2005. 82.181.88.129 15:16, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The latest edit...

... has added a paragraph to the summary at the top of the page that has nothing to do with Tim Berners-Lee but explains the differences with the WWW and the Internet. Obviously this shouldn't be there, but rather than reverse the edit I thought I'd leave it to a more experienced Wikipedian to decide whether this information is totally irrelevant, or should be edited and moved to a different part of the page. NumberJunkie 18:16, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism?

"He is an alumnus of Queen's College (where he played tiddly-winks for Oxford, against rivals Cambridge), Oxford University (which has dedicated a computer room in his honour)" -- Fact or vandalism? This is just goofy enough to be true. -- 201.78.233.162 22:54, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

I am wondering about that too. At first, I thought maybe tiddlywinks means something different in UK English than it does in American English. If it doesn't, then I would say that this would make a very odd collegiate 'sport'. Wandering Star 00:29, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

Tiddlywinks means the same in British English as it does in America. I agree, it does sound an implausible way to express inter-college rivalry; however, from Tiddlywinks: "The modern game of tiddlywinks was introduced in 1955 by Bill Steen and Rick Martin. These two Cambridge students wanted to play a game at which they could represent the university in a Varsity Match against Oxford." Not just confined to the UK either: see Harvard Tiddlywinks Society

[edit] An emacs user?

I'm trying to populate the Category:Emacs users. Tim seems like the type that is likely to be an Emacs user, and he uses it as an example when talking about text editors, but I can't find a clear "I use emacs" statement. If anyone can find such a statement, or if anyone knows that he is an Emacs user, please add the category tag to this article. Thanks. Gronky 23:26, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nomination for the Nobel Peace prize

I just happened to see that Tim Berners-Lee is nomitated this year (2006), for the Nobel Peace prize. And this makes me wonder why on earth someone thinks the Nobel commity will pick him. For sure he has made communication worldwide easier, but how well related is this to peace work?

And maybe this nomination should at least be mentioned here in the Tim Berners-Lee wiki. What do you think?

[edit] Cailliau?

It seems that Mr. Berners-Lee has recieved the lion's share of the "priority" claim for www, but what of Mr. Cailliau? It appears from the Cailliau article that they each wrote a proposal in the same year, and a joint proposal was issued in the following year, yet the Berners-Lee article appears to offer only a glancing thought for Mr. Cailliau. I doubt that either of the principals would care, but it is hard to know what to make of the distribution of the attribution. Were a Nobel to be awarded -- purely hypothetical to frame the question -- would each receive it, or Mr. Berners-Lee only? Final thought: they shared the ACM prize for that year...it would be interesting to have their joint supervisor weigh in...

[edit] Fraud of the Millenium: Tim Berners-Lee Hardly "Invented" the Web

"The press loves a story- especially when its juicy, simple (even simplistic), and ready for consumption. Such is the force behind the myth-making of Tim Berners-Lee. It is an insult to anyone who understands the Internet's history, architecture, and complexity to suggest one person 'invented it' or even invented the world wide web interface to access the Internet. TBL's responsibility for "inventing" the Web is such a joke in Silicon Valley that sometimes we have to remember that some people actually believe that he did so - thanks to media repetition. Hypertext was invented by Nelson and Englebart, both Americans. SGML preceded HTML and created its foundations. Berners-Lee borrowed and extended SGML. Further, the Internet relies on a number of protocols including TCP/IP, HTTP - none of which Berners-Lee invented. Berners-Lee was also uninvolved in the architecture behind the Internet whether that be the Mini-tel or ArpaNet. Berners-Lee also didn't invent the web browser, and the version he did create was available only for the NEXT machine, and unavailable to the public at large. For Berners-Lee's contribution, which is so modest to be concerned trivial by the technical community outside London, to earn him the merit of "father of the Web" is preposterous. It is beyond a stretch of the imagination. It is simply untrue."

Please sign your comments with ~~~~. Furthermore, we need some reliable sources that state what you're saying. Please see WP:References and WP:Cite sources. — Wackymacs 10:45, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Surely this looks like someone is upset that an American wasn't credited with this invention 82.181.88.129 15:19, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I concur. Our mysterious visitor also couldn't spell Douglas Engelbart's name correctly. --Coolcaesar 11:14, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Millenium Prize Winner Infobox

Isn't this a bit much? Neither nobel laureates nor presidents nor prime ministers have such a box. Shouldn't this be moved to the bottom of the page, as with every other title that changes hands? -- Exitmoose 06:35, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] no loner at ECS southampton?

Hi I think TBL is no longer at Southampton University.

He is not listed on the ECS staff page, and this paper credits him at MIT

http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/13347/

If this is the case this page will need to be updated.

Ckeene 14:46, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Link from httpd to NCSA-httpd is confusing.

I think the link from httpd to NCSA-httpd is confusing. The httpd from Tim is (quite) different from NCSA-httpd and NCSA-httpd was not made by Tim.

Jringoot 12:17, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Avid Kickball Fan

Is it true that Berners-Lee thinks kickball is America's Most Beloved Sport? I keep seeing that. Please update his page to talk about his love of sports, especially kickball. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.32.81.40 (talk) 09:07, 31 March 2007 (UTC).

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