By Mans Hulden
HELSINKI, Finland, June 15 AP - Tim Berners-Lee, whoreceived a $US1.2 million ($A1.73 million) cash prizefor creating the world wide web, says he would neverhave succeeded if he had charged money for hisinventions.
If I had tried to demand fees ... there would be noworld wide web,'' Berners-Lee, 49, said today at aceremony for winning the first Millennium TechnologyPrize. There would be lots of small webs.’’
The prize committee agreed, citing the importance ofBerners-Lee’s decision never to commercialise or patenthis contributions to the internet technologies he haddeveloped, and recognising his revolutionarycontribution to humanity’s ability to communicate.
Berners-Lee, who is originally from Britain and wasknighted last December, has mostly avoided both the fameand the fortune won by many of his internet colleagues.Despite his prize, he remained modest about hisachievements.
I was just taking lots of things that alreadyexisted and added a little little bit,'' saidBerners-Lee, who now runs the standard-setting WorldWide Web Consortium from an office at MassachusettsInstitute of Technology. Building the web, I didn’t do it all myself,’’ hesaid. The really exciting thing about it is that itwas done by lots and lots of people, connected with thistremendous spirit.'' Berners-Lee took concepts that were well known toengineers since the 1960s, but it was he who saw thevalue of marrying them. Pekka Tarjanne, chairman of the prize committee, saidno one doubts who the father of the world wide web is,except Berners-Lee himself.’’
Finish President Tarja Halonen presented the award,which is given every two years and subsidised by thegovernment. The cash prize is among the largest of itskind, and Berners-Lee is the first recipient.
The prize committee outlined the award to be given foran outstanding innovation that directly promotespeople's quality of life, is based on humane values andencourages sustainable economic development.'' Isn’t this like a definition of the world wideweb?’’ Tarjanne asked.
Berners-Lee first proposed the web in 1989 whiledeveloping ways to control computers remotely at CERN,the European nuclear research lab near Geneva. He nevergot the project formally approved, but his bosssuggested he quietly tinker with it anyway.
He fleshed out the core communication protocols neededfor transmitting web pages: the HTTP, or hypertexttransfer protocol, and the so-called markup languageused to create them, HTML. By Christmas Day 1990, hefinished the first browser, called simplyWorldWideWeb''. Although his inventions have undergone rapid changessince then, the underlying technology is precisely thesame. His recent project - which experts say is potentiallyas revolutionary as the world wide web itself - iscalled the semantic web. The project is an attempt tostandardise how information is stored on the internetand to organise automatically the jungle of data foundtoday on the net into a web’’ of concepts. Byattaching meaning to data behind the scenes, computerscan do a better job of searching for information.
It is an exciting new development that we'remaking,'' he said. In his acceptance speech, Berners-Lee focused ontechnology as an evolving process that was just in thebeginning. All sorts of things, too long for me to list here,are still out there waiting to be done. … There are somany new things to make, limited only by ourimagination. And I think it’s important for anybodywho’s going through school or college wondering what todo, to remember that now,’’ he said.
I thought Al Gore invented the internet …
Maybe the hair net?