Here, young Tim accepted a very challenging job: in order to enable nuclear physicists from all over Europe to exchange and transmit information in time and conduct cooperative research through computer networks, he was entrusted to develop a software to provide the latest information, data and image materials distributed in physics laboratories and research institutes all over the country to everyone. Although software development is not Tim's line of work, the strong temptation prompted him to bravely accept the task.
As early as when he was a physics major at Oxford University, Tim had been wondering whether he could find a point, just like the human brain, to transmit autonomic reactions through nerves. After hard work, he successfully wrote the first efficient local access browser, Enguire, and applied it to data browsing, and achieved success.
The victory of the first battle greatly inspired Tim's creative enthusiasm. It is no longer the goal to realize information sharing through small-scale computer networking. Tim's goal is to build a global information network and completely break down the barriers to obtaining information. 1989 In March, Tim submitted a project proposal to CERN, suggesting that hypertext technology be used to connect the laboratories inside CERN. After the system is completed, it will probably be extended to the whole world. This exciting proposal caused an uproar in CERN, but after all, this is a nuclear physics laboratory rather than a computer network research center. Although some people supported it, it was not passed in the end. Tim didn't lose heart. He spent two months revising the proposal, adding the description of hypertext development steps and application prospects, using sincere words, and submitting it again. I finally got the boss's approval this time. So Tim got a sum of money, bought a NEXT computer and led an assistant to develop an experimental system.
Hypertext technology appeared in the late 1980s of 1968+ 1980. At that time, there were international academic conferences on hypertext, and hundreds of papers on hypertext appeared every time, but no one could think of applying hypertext technology to computer networks: hypertext is just a new type of text. Opportunity favors those who are prepared. Tim once walked along the corridor of the laboratory with a cup of coffee, passing through the blooming lilacs, and elegant flowers floated into the laboratory in midsummer with the fragrance of coffee. In a flash, Tim was inspired by generate: the human brain can transmit information (coffee and lilacs) through interconnected nerves, so why not connect with each other through computer files to form hypertext? At first, on the midsummer night of 1989, Tim successfully developed the world's first Web server and the first Web client. Although this Web server is as simple as CERN's telephone directory, and only allows users to enter the host to query the telephone number of each researcher, it is really a WYSIWYG hypertext browser/editor.
198965438+In February, Tim officially named his invention the World Wide Web, which is familiar to us. 199 1 WWW first appeared on the Internet in May, which immediately caused a sensation, achieved great success and was widely popularized and applied.
Internet was born in1960s, why didn't it spread rapidly? In fact, it is very important because connecting to the Internet requires a series of complicated operations, the authority of the network is also very clear, and the expression of online content is extremely monotonous.
The Web organically combines the information in different computers on the network through hypertext, and can be transmitted from one Web server to another via Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to retrieve information. The network server can publish graphic information, even audio and video information with the support of software. In addition, many other functions of the Internet, such as e-mail, remote login, FTP, WAIS, etc. , which can be realized through the Web.
Professor Negroponte, the author of Digital Survival, a famous American information expert, believes that 1989 is an epoch-making watershed in the history of the Internet. Indeed, WWW technology endows the Internet with great vitality, and the way of web browsing endows the Internet with beautiful youth.
Today, Tim Behnas Lee, the father of the Internet, has achieved great success. But unlike what most ordinary people think, like other scientific inventions, the establishment of the World Wide Web (WWW) is a shortcut to get rich. Compared with those who rely on the internet to get rich overnight, Tim still sticks to his academic research post, and the mind that regards wealth as a floating cloud truly shows a scholar's demeanor dedicated to science.
Didn't Tim see the value of the World Wide Web? That's not true. In fact, as early as 1992, before the browser invented by the famous Netscape company mark anderson was put on the market, Tim and his research partners had consulted authoritative lawyers in Europe and considered selling web browser software by Websoft, but he finally gave up this decision. Because Tim foresaw that once his browser/editor came out, it would inevitably lead to a network software war and make the Internet fall into a separatist regime. For the cause of WWW that he loves, he decided to play the role of a technical marketer in the battle for WWW, rather than a businessman fighting for wealth.
With the development of Internet since 1990s, as predicted by Tim, the battle between Netscape and Microsoft's browser is called the first commercial battle of the World Wide Web, and the rapidly expanding network is in danger of paralysis. For this reason, in 1994, Tim founded the non-profit W3C(World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and invited famous companies on the Internet such as Microsoft, Netscape, Sun, Apple, IBM, etc. *** 155 to reach an agreement on standardization of WWW technology to further promote the development of Web technology. Tim insists that the basic task of W3C is to maintain the equivalence of the Internet and keep it in the lowest order.
He repeatedly reiterated that the original intention of building Web technology is to provide users with a better environment for information acquisition and communication by using WWW as a creative and efficient tool. But at present, the growth of WWW has entered the commercial field like a slow and deep explosion (Tim's words), and the consequences of restricting interpersonal communication are unexpected and regrettable for the founders. Headquartered in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Mit), W3C now has more than 40 employees, divided into several R&D groups. The task is to try to guide the development direction of the network revolution. Tim humorously called it an exciting job, just like speeding down the sled from the top of the mountain.
When Tim was awarded the title of scientist of the year by American Journal of Research and Development at the end of 1996, Tim Berners Lee thought that WWW had opened a new era of information age, but this was only an accidental problem. He doesn't regret not setting up his own network software company. For him, it's just taking and giving up, not gaining and losing. Looking back, Tim, a scientist full of romantic idealism, said in a modest tone: The Internet can give dreamers a revelation-you can have dreams and dreams can be realized. Indeed, the Web is Tim's dream between lilacs and laboratories, and the great Internet has grown up under the selfless cultivation of countless pioneers like Tim Berners Lee.