WWW Inventor Recieves Order of Merit from British Queen

Sir Tim Berners-Lee joins an elite group who have received the honour from the Queen for exceptional contributions in arts, sciences and other areas.

The British academic invented the web's address system and layout in Switzerland in 1991, ultimately revolutionising global communication. Previously, he was named Greatest Briton at a ceremony in 2004.

He created his hypertext program while he was at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva The code he crafted made it far easier for scientists to share their research and information across a fledgling computer network.

news.bbc.co.uk...

The World Wide Web has certainly revolutionized my life, even though I was late to get on board.

Of course, even before I realized what was happening, my life was certainly touched by the benefits of the web.

It's an amazing invention that has simplified my life in so many ways, opened the door to communication with so many people, and placed a near limitless supply of information at my fingertips.

I really can't say enough good things about the impact that the web has had on my life, even if there was turmoil that resulted from the transition between what was my old way of living and my new way of living.

It's sad that there are so many people who, having the technology available to them, have never taken that one step that propels them into "future"-- at least, the kind of future many of us dreamed about when we were kids.

How has Sir Tim's little invention touched your life?

[edit on 2007/6/13 by GradyPhilpott]

I had access to Prestel (the academic precursor to the current internet) when I was a kid and visiting my uncle. I'd dial-up his faculty server on a BBCmicro and housebrick size modem that you had to place the phone handset into when a tone sounded; and play online state-of-the-art text-based adventure games (you are in a tower with a door to your South...*type 'south'*...you are outside a tower with a door to the South and two paths leading East and West..*type 'west'*)

I was amazed at that level of technology then...my little head would have exploded if you'd have told me what was to come 15yrs later!

[edit on 13-6-2007 by citizen smith]

I guess the web has become a ho-hum fact of modern life.

I used to carry the number for the university and public libraries reference desks in my wallet and later in my Casio Databank, so I could call and get answers to questions from anywhere that had a phone.

I don't need the reference desks, anymore.

I have the World Wide Web.

The concept behind the WWW was well defined in the Ho Chi Minh trail. The VC created four main north-south trails with cross connecting trails along their length.

No matter how many thousands of tons of bombs the US dropped on poor li'l Laos, how many bridges were bombed and how many landmines were laid to blow off the legs of generations of innocent peasant farmers, the materiel continued to flow south. The black pyjama wearing men and women of Vietnam showed the west just how to build a robust communication system from nothing.

It is they who should be credited with the core design of the WWW. The capitalist slime who make their obscene weatlh from the internet should be forced to put some of their undeserved riches into disposing of the remaining land mines along the Ho Chi Minh trail and in rehabilitating victims in acknowledgement of the contribution of the trail to modern life.