Inventor: Tim Berners-Lee

The World Wide Web (WWW) was created by Tim Berners-Lee, who was working for CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory.  They decided that there would be no fee for using it, which has helped lead to its enormous popularity today.  As a result, Berners-Lee never profited from his creation.  Berners-Lee also created HTML, the internet programming language and the world’s first server, which holds web pages and lets other programs read it.
By creating the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee fulfilled his vision of being able to connect every computer on the planet.  His idea for this web was started in the early 80’s when he created the software program “Enquire Within upon Everything” which he nicknamed Enquire.  This program had pages of information in which each page can only be accessed by a link from a previous page. 
He decided to create a network which incorporated the existing technologies of the internet and hypertext.  He tried to pitch his idea to CERN, but they failed to show any interest.  Working with a colleague of his, he was able to set up a basic form of the web and connect their computers to the server that they had created.  This is when people began to see the brilliance of the project.  The popularity of the web spread throughout the globe and now phrases such as .com and URL are well known.  The World Wide Web is now a vital medium for doing business, communicating, sharing ideas, and entertainment. (See Internet and E-mail.)

*Pictures from Microsoft Electronic Encarta Encyclopedia Standard Edition 2002

Sources:
Berners-Lee, Tim. Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web. New York: HarperBusiness; 2000.

“WWW”. Microsoft Electronic Encarta Encyclopedia Standard Edition 2002.

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