:Tim Berners-Lee

Berners-Lee was born in London on 8 June 1955,{{cite web |title=Berners-Lee Longer Biography |url=http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Longer.html |access-date=18 January 2011 |website=w3.org |publisher=World Wide Web Consortium}} the son of mathematicians and computer scientists Mary Lee Woods (1924–2017) and Conway Berners-Lee (1921–2019). His parents were both from Birmingham and worked on the Ferranti Mark 1, the first commercially-built computer. He has three younger siblings; his brother, Mike, is a professor of ecology and climate change management.

Berners-Lee attended Sheen Mount Primary School, then attended Emanuel School (a direct grant grammar school at the time) from 1969 to 1973.{{Who's Who | title=Berners-Lee, Sir Timothy (John) | id = U12699 | author=Anon|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U12699|year = 2015 | edition = online Oxford University Press}} A keen trainspotter as a child, he learnt about electronics from tinkering with a model railway.{{cite web |last=Edgecliffe-Johnson |first=Andrew |date=7 September 2012 |title=Lunch with the FT: Tim Berners-Lee |url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b022ff6c-f673-11e1-9fff-00144feabdc0.html#axzz25mg7CPq7 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210211257/https://www.ft.com/content/b022ff6c-f673-11e1-9fff-00144feabdc0#axzz25mg7CPq7 |archive-date=10 December 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=11 June 2017 |work=Financial Times }}

From 1973 to 1976, he studied at The Queen's College, Oxford, where he received a first-class BA in physics. While there, he made a computer out of an old television set he had purchased from a repair shop.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-in-school/he-caught-us-all-in-the-web/article24836867.ece|title=He caught us all in the Web!|date=1 September 2018|work=The Hindu|access-date=2 September 2018|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}

File:Tim Berners-Lee.jpg

After graduation, Berners-Lee worked as an engineer at the telecommunications company Plessey in Poole, Dorset. In 1978, he joined D. G. Nash in Ferndown, Dorset, where he helped create typesetting software for printers.

Berners-Lee worked as an independent contractor at CERN from June to December 1980. While in Geneva, he proposed a project based on the concept of hypertext, to facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers.{{cite web |date=March 1989 |title=Berners-Lee's original proposal to CERN |url=http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html |access-date=25 May 2008 |website=w3.org |publisher=World Wide Web Consortium}} To demonstrate it, he built a prototype system named ENQUIRE.{{cite web|last=Stewart|first=Bill|title=Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, and the World Wide Web|url=http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_lee.htm|access-date=22 July 2010}}

After leaving CERN in late 1980, he went to work at John Poole's Image Computer Systems, Ltd, in Bournemouth, Dorset.{{cite web|title=Frequently asked questions|url=http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|access-date=22 July 2010|first=Tim |last=Berners-Lee}} He ran the company's technical side for three years.{{cite news|last=Grossman|first=Wendy|title=All you never knew about the Net ...|newspaper=The Independent|date=15 July 1996}} The project he worked on was a "real-time remote procedure call" which gave him experience in computer networking. In 1984, he returned to CERN as a fellow.

In 1989, CERN was the largest Internet node in Europe and Berners-Lee saw an opportunity to join hypertext with the Internet:

{{blockquote|I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and—ta-da!—the World Wide Web.|author=Tim Berners-Lee{{cite web|first=Tim |last=Berners-Lee|title=Answers for Young People|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|url=http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Kids.html|access-date=25 May 2008}}}}

{{blockquote|Creating the web was really an act of desperation, because the situation without it was very difficult when I was working at CERN later. Most of the technology involved in the web, like the hypertext, like the Internet, multifont text objects, had all been designed already. I just had to put them together. It was a step of generalising, going to a higher level of abstraction, thinking about all the documentation systems out there as being possibly part of a larger imaginary documentation system.|author=Tim Berners-Lee{{cite web |url=https://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-timothy-berners-lee/#interview |date=22 June 2007 |title=Visionary of the Internet |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=American Academy of Achievement}}}}

File:First Web Server.jpg was used by Berners-Lee at CERN and became the world's first web server.]]

Berners-Lee wrote his proposal in March 1989 and, in 1990, redistributed it. It then was accepted by his manager, Mike Sendall, who called his proposals "vague, but exciting".{{cite web|title=Ten Years Public Domain for the Original Web Software|url=http://tenyears-www.web.cern.ch/tenyears-www/Story/WelcomeStory.html|publisher=CERN|access-date=21 July 2010|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101116205636/http://tenyears-www.web.cern.ch/tenyears-www/Story/WelcomeStory.html|archivedate=16 November 2010|url-status=dead}} Robert Cailliau had independently proposed a project to develop a hypertext system at CERN, and joined Berners-Lee as a partner in his efforts to get the web off the ground. They used similar ideas to those underlying the ENQUIRE system to create the World Wide Web, for which Berners-Lee designed and built the first web browser. His software also functioned as an editor (called WorldWideWeb, running on the NeXTSTEP operating system), and the first Web server, CERN HTTPd (short for Hypertext Transfer Protocol daemon).

Berners-Lee published the first web site, which described the project itself, on 20 December 1990; it was available to the Internet from the CERN network. The site provided an explanation of what the World Wide Web was, and how people could use a browser and set up a web server, as well as how to get started with your own website.{{cite web|title=Welcome to info.cern.ch, the website of the world's first-ever web server|publisher=CERN|url=http://info.cern.ch/|access-date=25 May 2008}}{{cite web|title=World Wide Web—Archive of world's first website|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|url=http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html|access-date=25 May 2008}}{{cite web|title=World Wide Web—First mentioned on USENET|date=6 August 1991|url=http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.hypertext/msg/06dad279804cb3ba?dmode=source&hl=en|access-date=25 May 2008|archive-date=12 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512015304/http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt.hypertext/msg/06dad279804cb3ba?dmode=source&hl=en|url-status=dead}} On 6 August 1991, Berners-Lee first posted, on Usenet, a public invitation for collaboration with the WorldWideWeb project.{{cite web |url=https://www.w3.org/blog/2016/08/25-years-ago-the-world-changed-forever |title=25 Years ago the world changed forever |first=Amy |last=Van der Hiel |date=4 August 2016 |website=W3C |accessdate=5 August 2021}}

In a list of 80 cultural moments that shaped the world, chosen by a panel of 25 eminent scientists, academics, writers and world leaders in 2016, the invention of the World Wide Web was ranked number one, with the entry stating, "The fastest growing communications medium of all time, the Internet has changed the shape of modern life forever. We can connect with each other instantly, all over the world."{{cite web |title= 80 moments that shaped the world |url= https://www.britishcouncil.org/80moments/?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C5655166218 |publisher= British Council |access-date= 13 May 2016 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160630220524/https://www.britishcouncil.org/80moments/?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C5655166218 |archive-date= 30 June 2016 |df= dmy-all }}

In 1994, Berners-Lee founded the W3C at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It comprised various companies that were willing to create standards and recommendations to improve the quality of the Web. Berners-Lee made his idea available freely, with no patent and no royalties due. The World Wide Web Consortium decided that its standards should be based on royalty-free technology, so that they easily could be adopted by anyone.{{cite web|title=Patent Policy—5 February 2004|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|date=5 February 2004|url=http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy-20040205/|access-date=25 May 2008}}

Berners-Lee participated in Curl Corp's attempt to develop and promote the Curl programming language.{{cite web| url = https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/29/business/web-inventor-tim-berners-lee-wants-personal-empowerment-users-through-his-data-startup/| title = Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee wants 'personal empowerment' for users, through his data startup | website= The Boston Globe | date=29 December 2020}}

In 2001, Berners-Lee became a patron of the East Dorset Heritage Trust, having previously lived in Colehill in Wimborne, East Dorset.Klooster, John W., (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=WKuG-VIwID8C&dq=tim+berners+lee++-+east+dorset+heritage+trust&pg=PA611 Icons of Invention: the makers of the modern world from Gutenberg to Gates], ABC-CLIO, p. 611. In December 2004, he accepted a chair in computer science at the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, Hampshire, to work on the Semantic Web.{{Cite journal | last1 = Berners-Lee | first1 = T. | author-link1 = Tim Berners-Lee| last2 = Hendler | first2 = J. | author-link2 = James Hendler| last3 = Lassila | first3 = O. | author-link3 = Ora Lassila| doi = 10.1038/scientificamerican0501-34 | title = The Semantic Web | journal = Scientific American | volume = 2841| issue = 5 | pages = 34 | year = 2001 | bibcode = 2001SciAm.284e..34B }}{{cite web| title = Tim Berners-Lee, World Wide Web inventor, to join ECS| publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|date= 2 December 2004| url = http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/news/658| access-date=25 May 2008 }}

In a Times article in October 2009, Berners-Lee admitted that the initial pair of slashes ("//") in a web address were "unnecessary". He told the newspaper that he easily could have designed web addresses without the slashes. "There you go, it seemed like a good idea at the time," he said in his lighthearted apology.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8306631.stm|title=Berners-Lee 'sorry' for slashes|publisher=BBC |date= 14 October 2009|access-date=14 October 2009}}

File:timbernerslee.jpg, London, on 11 March 2010]]

By 2010, he created data.gov.uk alongside Nigel Shadbolt. Commenting on the Ordnance Survey data in April 2010, Berners-Lee said: "The changes signal a wider cultural change in government based on an assumption that information should be in the public domain unless there is a good reason not to—not the other way around." He went on to say: "Greater openness, accountability and transparency in Government will give people greater choice and make it easier for individuals to get more directly involved in issues that matter to them."{{cite news| title = Ordnance Survey offers free data access |work=BBC News |date= 1 April 2010| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8597779.stm| access-date=3 April 2009 }}

File:Berners-Lee announcing W3F.jpg]]

In November 2009, Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web Foundation (WWWF).[http://www.webfoundation.org/about/faq/ FAQ—World Wide Web Foundation]. Retrieved 18 January 2011.

Berners-Lee is one of the pioneer voices in favour of net neutrality,{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7613201.stm|title=Web creator rejects net tracking|publisher=BBC |date= 15 September 2008|access-date=15 September 2008|quote=Warning sounded on web's future.|first=Pallab|last=Ghosh}} and has expressed the view that ISPs should supply "connectivity with no strings attached", and should neither control nor monitor the browsing activities of customers without their expressed consent.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7299875.stm|title=Web creator rejects net tracking|publisher=BBC |date= March 2008|access-date=25 May 2008|quote=Sir Tim rejects net tracking like Phorm.|first=Rory|last=Cellan-Jones}}{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581938/Web-inventor%27s-warning-on-spy-software.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080522025521/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581938/Web-inventor%27s-warning-on-spy-software.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 May 2008|title=Web inventor's warning on spy software|work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date= March 2008|access-date=25 May 2008|quote=Sir Tim rejects net tracking like Phorm.

| first=Stephen|last=Adams}} He advocates the idea that net neutrality is a kind of human network right: "Threats to the Internet, such as companies or governments that interfere with or snoop on Internet traffic, compromise basic human network rights."{{cite web|last=Berners |first=Tim |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web |title=Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality|date= December 2010 |work=Scientific American |access-date=21 December 2011}} Berners-Lee participated in an open letter to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). He and 20 other Internet pioneers urged the FCC to cancel a vote on 14 December 2017 to uphold net neutrality. The letter was addressed to Senator Roger Wicker, Senator Brian Schatz, Representative Marsha Blackburn and Representative Michael F. Doyle.[https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/11/vint-cerf-tim-berners-lee-and-19-other-technologists-pen-letter-asking-fcc-to-save-net-neutrality/ "Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee, and 19 other technologists pen letter asking FCC to save net neutrality"]. VB News. Retrieved 14 December 2017

Berners-Lee was honoured as the "Inventor of the World Wide Web" during the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, in which he appeared working with a vintage NeXT Computer. He tweeted "This is for everyone"{{cite web|author=Berners-Lee, Tim|title=This is for everyone| url=https://twitter.com/timberners_lee/status/228960085672599552 | publisher=Twitter|date=27 July 2012|access-date=28 July 2012}} which appeared in LED lights attached to the chairs of the audience.{{cite news |title=Sir Tim Berners-Lee stars in Olympics opening ceremony |first=Karen |last=Friar |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/web-inventor-tim-berners-lee-stars-in-olympics-opening-ceremony/ |newspaper=ZDNet |date=28 July 2012 |access-date=28 July 2012}}

File:This is for Everyone.jpg in London]]

Berners-Lee joined the board of advisors of start-up State.com, based in London.{{cite web

|title = State.com/about/people

|url = https://state.com/about/people

|access-date = 9 September 2013

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192300/https://state.com/about/people

|archive-date = 3 March 2016

|df = dmy-all

}} As of May 2012, he is president of the Open Data Institute,{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/government-computing-network/2012/may/23/open-data-institute-plans-published-cabinet-office?newsfeed=true |work=The Guardian | first=Government | last=Computing | title=Government commits £10m to Open Data Institute | date=23 May 2012}} which he co-founded with Nigel Shadbolt in 2012.

The Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) was launched in October 2013, and Berners-Lee is leading the coalition of public and private organisations that includes Google, Facebook, Intel and Microsoft. The A4AI seeks to make Internet access more affordable so that access is broadened in the developing world, where only 31% of people are online. Berners-Lee will work with those aiming to decrease Internet access prices so that they fall below the UN Broadband Commission's worldwide target of 5% of monthly income.{{cite news|title=Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Google lead coalition for cheaper internet|url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/07/google-berners-lee-alliance-broadband-africa?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2&et_cid=51918&et_rid=7107573&Linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.theguardian.com%2ftechnology%2f2013%2foct%2f07%2fgoogle-berners-lee-alliance-broadband-africa|access-date=8 October 2013|newspaper=The Guardian|date=7 October 2013|first=Samuel |last=Gibbs}}

Berners-Lee holds the founders chair in Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he heads the Decentralized Information Group and is leading Solid, a joint project with the Qatar Computing Research Institute that aims to radically change the way Web applications work today, resulting in true data ownership as well as improved privacy.Weinberger, David, [http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/ways-to-decentralize-the-web/ "How the father of the World Wide Web plans to reclaim it from Facebook and Google"]. Digital Trends, 10 August 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2016. In October 2016, he joined the Department of Computer Science at Oxford University as a professorial research fellow{{cite web |url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2016-10-27-sir-tim-berners-lee-joins-oxfords-department-computer-science# |title=Sir Tim Berners-Lee joins Oxford's Department of Computer Science |publisher=University of Oxford | location=UK | date=27 October 2016 }} and as a fellow of Christ Church, one of the Oxford colleges.{{cite web | url=http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/news/research-and-academia/TBLpress-release | title=Sir Tim Berners-Lee joins Oxford's Department of Computer Science and Christ Church | date=27 October 2016 | publisher=Christ Church, Oxford | location=UK | access-date=14 November 2016 | archive-date=25 June 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625052303/https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/news/research-and-academia/TBLpress-release | url-status=dead }}

File:At the Science Museum for the Web@30 event, March 2019 23.jpg

From the mid-2010s, Berners-Lee initially remained neutral on the emerging Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposal with its controversial digital rights management (DRM) implications.{{cite news|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/06/berners_lee_web_drm_w3c/|title=Sir Tim Berners-Lee refuses to be King Canute, approves DRM as Web standard|website=The Register|publisher=Situation Publishing|date=6 March 2017|first=Kieren|last=McCarthy|access-date=30 May 2019|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181005001244/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/06/berners_lee_web_drm_w3c/|archive-date=5 October 2018}} In March 2017 he felt he had to take a position which was to support the EME proposal. He reasoned EME's virtues whilst noting DRM was inevitable. As W3C director, he went on to approve the finalised specification in July 2017.{{cite magazine|title=DRM concerns arise as W3C's Tim Berners-Lee approves the EME specification |url=https://sdtimes.com/digital-restrictions-management/drm-concerns-arise-as-w3cs-tim-berners-lee-approves-the-eme-specification/ |magazine=SD Times |access-date=12 March 2019|date=7 July 2017|first=Christina|last=Cardoza|publisher=BZ Media LLC|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190530183218/https://sdtimes.com/digital-restrictions-management/drm-concerns-arise-as-w3cs-tim-berners-lee-approves-the-eme-specification/|archive-date=30 May 2019}} His stance was opposed by some including Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the anti-DRM campaign Defective by Design and the Free Software Foundation. Varied concerns raised included being not supportive of the Internet's open philosophy against commercial interests and risks of users being forced to use a particular web browser to view specific DRM content. The EFF raised a formal appeal which did not succeed and the EME specification became a formal W3C recommendation in September 2017.{{cite news|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/18/w3c_approves_eme/|title=DRM now a formal Web recommendation after protest vote fails|website=The Register|publisher=Situation Publishing|date=18 September 2017|first=Kieren|last=McCarthy|access-date=30 May 2019|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190227064708/https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/18/w3c_approves_eme/|archive-date=27 February 2019}}

On 30 September 2018, Berners-Lee announced his new open-source startup Inrupt to fuel a commercial ecosystem around the Solid project, which aims to give users more control over their personal data and lets them choose where the data goes, who's allowed to see certain elements and which apps are allowed to see that data.{{Cite news|url=https://www.engadget.com/2018/09/30/tim-berners-lee-solid-data-control/|title=Tim Berners-Lee project gives you more control over web data|work=Engadget|access-date=30 September 2018|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/90243936/exclusive-tim-berners-lee-tells-us-his-radical-new-plan-to-upend-the-world-wide-web|title=Exclusive: Tim Berners-Lee tells us his radical new plan to upend the World Wide Web=Fast Company|access-date=29 September 2018|language=en-US}}

In November 2019, at the Internet Governance Forum in Berlin, Berners-Lee and the WWWF launched Contract for the Web, a campaign initiative to persuade governments, companies and citizens to commit to nine principles to stop "misuse", with the warning that "if we don't act now{{snd}}and act together{{snd}}to prevent the web being misused by those who want to exploit, divide and undermine, we are at risk of squandering [its potential for good]".{{Cite news|last=CNA Staff|date=25 November 2019|title=Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee launches plan to stop Internet abuse|url=https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/web-inventor-tim-berners-lee-launches-plan-stop-internet-abuse-12123526|access-date=25 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191125193812/https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/web-inventor-tim-berners-lee-launches-plan-stop-internet-abuse-12123526|archive-date=25 November 2019|url-status=live}}

{{main|List of awards and honours received by Tim Berners-Lee}}

{{Quote box|width=30%|align=right|quote="He wove the World Wide Web and created a mass medium for the 21st century. The World Wide Web is Berners-Lee's alone. He designed it. He loosed it on the world. And he more than anyone else has fought to keep it open, nonproprietary and free."|source=—Tim Berners-Lee's entry in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th century, March 1999.}}

Berners-Lee has received many awards and honours. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in the 2004 New Year Honours "for services to the global development of the Internet", and was invested formally on 16 July 2004.

On 13 June 2007, he was appointed to the Order of Merit (OM), an order restricted to 24 living members, plus any honorary members.{{cite news|access-date=25 May 2008|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6750395.stm|title=Web inventor gets Queen's honour|publisher=BBC |date=13 June 2007}} Bestowing membership of the Order of Merit is within the personal purview of the Sovereign and does not require recommendation by ministers or the Prime Minister.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2001.{{cite web|title=Fellowship of the Royal Society 1660–2015|url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml|publisher=Royal Society|location=London|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185820/https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml|archive-date=15 October 2015|url-status=dead}} He was also elected as a member into the American Philosophical Society in 2004{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Tim+Berners-Lee&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=14 June 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}} and the National Academy of Engineering in 2007.

He has been conferred honorary degrees from a number of universities around the world, including Manchester (his parents worked on the Manchester Mark 1 in the 1940s), Harvard and Yale.{{Cite news |title=Scientific pioneers honoured by The University of Manchester |url=http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=4216 |work=manchester.ac.uk |date=2 December 2008 |access-date=28 May 2016 |archive-date=22 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022073226/http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=4216 |url-status=dead }}[http://news.yale.edu/2014/05/19/yale-awards-12-honorary-degrees-2014-graduation "Yale awards 12 honorary degrees at 2014 graduation"]. Yale News, 19 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2016.[http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/05/harvard-to-award-nine-honorary-degrees/#berners-lee "Harvard awards 9 honorary degrees"], Harvard Gazette, 26 May 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2016.

In 2012, Berners-Lee was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires to mark his 80th birthday.{{cite news|title=New faces on Sgt Pepper album cover for artist Peter Blake's 80th birthday|first=Caroline |last=Davies|url= https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/02/peter-blake-sgt-pepper-cover-revisited|work=The Guardian|date=5 October 2016}}{{cite news|title=Sir Peter Blake's new Beatles' Sgt Pepper's album cover|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17583026|work=BBC|date=2 April 2012|access-date=9 November 2016}}

In 2013, he was awarded the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.{{cite web|url=https://webfoundation.org/2013/03/sir-tim-berners-lee-receives-inaugural-queen-elizabeth-prize-for-engineering/|title=Sir Tim Berners-Lee Receives Inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, 2013|date=18 March 2013|publisher=Web foundation.org}} On 4 April 2017, he received the 2016 Association for Computing Machinery's Turing Award for his invention of the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and their fundamental protocols and algorithms.{{cite web|url=http://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/berners-lee_8087960.cfm|title=A. M. Turing Award|date=2016|publisher=Association for Computing Machinery|access-date=4 April 2017}}

Berners-Lee has said "I like to keep work and personal life separate."{{Cite web|title=Frequently asked questions by the Press – Tim BL|url=https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html#tell|access-date=10 September 2020|website=www.w3.org}}

Berners-Lee married Nancy Carlson, an American computer programmer, in 1990. She was also working in Switzerland at the World Health Organization.{{cite news |title=Nancy Carlson Is Wed to Timothy Berners-Lee |work=The New York Times |date=15 July 1990 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/07/15/style/nancy-carlson-is-wed-to-timothy-berners-lee.html |access-date=22 June 2018 |language=en}} They had two children and divorced in 2011. In 2014, he married Rosemary Leith at the Chapel Royal, St. James's Palace in London.[http://webfoundation.org/tim-berners-lee-married-rosemary-leith/ "Ms Rosemary Leith and Sir Tim Berners-Lee are delighted to announce that they celebrated their marriage on 20 June 2014...."] World Wide Web Foundation. Leith is a Canadian Internet and banking entrepreneur and a founding director of Berners-Lee's World Wide Web Foundation.{{cite web |title=Rosemary Leith |url=https://webfoundation.org/about/board/rosemary-leith/ |website=World Wide Web Foundation |date=25 June 2013 |access-date=23 June 2018 |language=en-us}} The couple also collaborate on venture capital to support artificial intelligence companies.{{cite news |title=VC firm Glasswing names Jibo, John Hancock execs to advisory board |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/05/08/vc-firm-glasswing-names-jibo-john-hancock-execs-to.html |access-date=22 June 2018 |work=www.bizjournals.com |date=8 May 2018}}

Berners-Lee was raised as an Anglican, but he turned away from religion in his youth. After he became a parent, he became a Unitarian Universalist (UU).{{Cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3142618.stm|title=Faces of the week|date=26 September 2003|via=news.bbc.co.uk}} When asked whether he believes in God, he stated: "Not in the sense of most people, I'm atheist and Unitarian Universalist."{{Cite web|url=https://www.businessinsider.com/mathias-dopfner-tim-berners-lee-world-wide-web-interview-2017-5|title=The inventor of the web Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the internet, 'fake news,' and why net neutrality is so important|last=Döpfner|first=Mathias|website=Business Insider|access-date=24 December 2019}}

The web's source code was auctioned by Sotheby's in London during 23–30 June 2021, as a non-fungible token (NFT) by TimBL.{{cite news |title=NFT representing Tim Berners-Lee's source code for the web to go on sale |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jun/15/nft-representing-tim-berners-lee-source-code-world-wide-web-sale-auction |access-date=15 June 2021 |agency=theguardian.com |publisher=theguardian.com |date=15 June 2021}}{{cite web |title=This Changed Everything: Source Code for WWW x Tim Berners-Lee, an NFT |url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/this-changed-everything-source-code-for-www-x-tim-berners-lee-an-nft/source-code-for-the-www |website=sothebys.com |access-date=15 June 2021}}{{cite news |title=The web's source code is being auctioned as an NFT by inventor Tim Berners-Lee |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/15/web-nft-source-code-is-being-auctioned-by-inventor-tim-berners-lee.html |access-date=15 June 2021 |agency=cnbc.com |publisher=cnbc.com |date=15 June 2021}} Selling for US$5,434,500,{{cite news |last1=Lawler |first1=Richard |title=Sir Tim Berners-Lee's web source code NFT sells for $5.4 million |url=https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/30/22557765/www-nft-tim-berners-lee-sothebys-source-code |access-date=30 June 2021 |work=The Verge |publisher=VOX Media |date=30 June 2021}} it was reported the proceeds would be used to fund initiatives by TimBL and Leith.

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• Tim Berners-Lee's [https://web.archive.org/web/20171109232547/http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Publications.html publications]
• Tim Berners-Lee and the Development of the World Wide Web (Unlocking the Secrets of Science) (Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2001), {{ISBN|1-58415-096-3}}
• Tim Berners-Lee: Inventor of the World Wide Web (Ferguson's Career Biographies), Melissa Stewart (Ferguson Publishing Company, 2001), {{ISBN|0-89434-367-X}} children's biography
• How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web, Robert Cailliau, James Gillies, R. Cailliau (Oxford University Press, 2000), {{ISBN|0-19-286207-3}}
• Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Fischetti (Paw Prints, 2008)
• [http://computemagazine.com/man-who-invented-world-wide-web-gives-new-definition/ "Man Who Invented the World Wide Web Gives it New Definition"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110412130543/http://computemagazine.com/man-who-invented-world-wide-web-gives-new-definition |date=12 April 2011 }}, Compute Magazine, 11 February 2011
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4132752.stm BBC2 Newsnight – Transcript of video interview of Berners-Lee on the read/write Web]
• [http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/13784/ Technology Review interview] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111128200636/http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/13784/ |date=28 November 2011 }}
• {{cite magazine |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/07/the-man-who-created-the-world-wide-web-has-some-regrets |date=August 2018 |title="I Was Devastated": Tim Berners-Lee, the Man Who Created the World Wide Web, Has Some Regrets |magazine=Vanity Fair |first=Katrina |last=Brooker}}

{{refend}}

{{Sister project links |auto=yes}}

• [http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ Tim Berners-Lee] on the W3C site
• [https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Publications.html List of Tim Berners-Lee publications] on W3C site
• {{TED speaker}}
• {{C-SPAN|42432}}

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{{s-ttl|title = Millennium Technology Prize winner|years = 2004 (for the World Wide Web)}}

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{{Telecommunications}}

{{Charles Stark Draper Prize}}

{{Japan Prize}}

{{Internet Hall of Fame}}

{{FRS 2001}}

{{Turing Award laureates}}

{{Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research}}

{{Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Internet|Technology|Systems science|University of Oxford|Free and open-source software}}

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