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A little while ago I talked about presenting something I had made for the first time in front of people (yeah, over video call but still a big deal for me) and I also mentioned I would turn it into a blogpost and well here it is.
The presentation was the main project of an online mini-course on cybersecurity.
Not going to lie I feel a little down right now over something that has taken place today but I’ll come on to that tomorrow in my Weekly Update post.
So, without further ado… my presentation in blogpost format.
Who is Tim Berners-Lee?
- He is a computer scientist born in London, England on the 8th June 1955.
- Lee attended Oxford and later worked at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN).
While at Oxford Lee graduated with a first-class degree in physics, he had no particular plans for his future. He would subsequently land a series of jobs at different companies as a programmer, but none of them lasted long. It was not until the early 1980s when he got a consulting position at CERN, near Geneva, that his life would begin to change.
He Came Up with the World Wide Web
- Tim Berners-Lee is best known as the man who ‘invented’ the World Wide Web – connecting networks via hyperlinks to be more standardised and accessible than ever before.
- He invented it while at the European Particle Physics Laboratory in 1989. He also wrote the first web client and web server in 1990.
Although Lee’s boss at CERN said that his idea was “Vague by exciting” he luckily allowed Berners-Lee to work on it as a side-project.
- Lee specified a standard of URIs, HTTP, and HTML for the World Wide Web which has been refined since that time (so, things like CSS and JavaScript have since come along, HTTPS and various other common standards would later follow and continue to evolve to this day).
A URI is a Uniform Resource Identifier used by web technologies that enables identification of things – such as web pages. In the most basic sense, it is a direct link to a thing/place. But there is more complexity than that obviously.
The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a specific type of URI. URLs are actually a fundamental part of what makes the Web the Web and enables it to be distinct from the Internet. The Internet itself is defined by protocols which have been used by applications such as email and the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) since 1969 – Although the Internet Protocol (IP) itself did not become distinct until 1978. The Web itself requires clients and servers to use the Internet Protocol (IP) (AKA have an internet connection) to access the Web, which is why World Wide Web and Internet are often used interchangeably, although it is important to understand they are different things.
HTTP is Hypertext Transfer Protocol which is an application layer protocol that allows the client to send a request-response protocol (such as by clicking hyperlinks or performing other actions on a website) to a server. You will see HTTP or HTTPS at the beginning of website links. Without HTTP accessing and using websites would not be possible. HTTPS is the encrypted version of HTTP – encrypted to provide security to clients using the website.
It is important to never input important information into websites that use HTTP as for example your password would not be encrypted when inputted like it would be on websites using HTTPS – so always check the start of website links! Unencrypted passwords or other sensitive information inputted into a website using HTTP can easily be obtained by attackers who are snooping on the network with little effort.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) of course is a programming language – a very simple one – that is used to actually display content and create working functions on websites. Now a days it is almost always used alongside CSS (for better style and design) and JavaScript (for more complex functionality) in the vast majority of websites.
Lee said himself that he took the already existing hypertext idea and connected it to the Transmission Control Protocol (an important protocol used by the internet) and domain system ideas to create the Web.
- The World Wide Web was initially conceived and developed to meet the demand for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the world. This made it so information was not locked to specific computers/networks and was thus harder to move around.
- The World Wide Web has since expanded into much more.
- This is thanks to Lee and CERN releasing the source code of his brain child for free, with the aim of it becoming an open and democratic platform for all.
Interesting Facts About Tim Berners-Lee
- As a student at Oxford in the early 1970s, Berners-Lee built his own computer using an old television and a soldering iron.
- His parents helped create the first commercial stored-program electronic computer – the Ferranti Mark I.
- The first website went live on 6th August 1991 – this was info.cern.ch
- Berners-Lee was honoured during the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.
- One of Time magazine’s “100 Most Important People of the 20th Century”.
He was also a very keen trainspotter when he was a child and he enjoyed playing with model railways – from which he claims to have learnt a lot about electronics. He also apparently still drives a 15-year-old Volkswagen Rabbit simply because he wants to.
What Else Does He Do?
- He continues to have a great dedication to his creation – especially in its free availability as well as enhancing and protecting it.
- He is the Founding Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, with a mission to ensure the web serves humanity by promoting it as a global public good and basic right.
- He is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, which sets voluntary global standards to unlock the full potential of the World Wide Web.
Furthermore – Lee is looking to agree on a sort-of web contract with governments and Big Tech companies which would include both legal and technical rules as a way to stop the Web being misused for things like misinformation and clickbait that is commercially awarded by things like ad-based revenue. He also wants such a thing to protect and enhance human rights, privacy, democracy, scientific facts, and public safety on the Web. He also wants requirements for better business practices on the Web and regulation of the app economy, among other things.
The Solid Project
- Solid is Lee’s next big project to protect people’s data.
- It allows people to store and control their data securely in decentralised data stores called Pods.
- Data and access rules for each Pod are distinct from one another.
So, you control access to the data in your Pod. You decide what data to share and with whom (be it individuals, organisations, and/or apps). Furthermore, you have the power to revoke access at any time.
- Lee created this project due to growing concerns over how people, organisations and governments are using people’s data.
Berners-Lee has long been concerned with how social media platforms and other companies’ applications use people’s data. Some big examples include the whole Russia US election fiasco in 2016, and Facebook exposing data to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook has also conducted psychological experiments on its users previously. As well as that both Google and Amazon have filed patent applications for devices that listen for mood shifts and emotions in its user’s voices.
Companies such as Facebook, Google, Amazon among others have monopolized so many things that happen online nowadays. Berners-Lee sees this as very dystopian and against the original purpose of the Web being open, free and democratic.
Berners-Lee’s ultimate goal is to re-decentralise the World Wide Web.
He has A LOT of Awards (Don’t be Jealous!)
Far too many to name all of them… but some are… …
- The Order of Merit.
- The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE)
- Fellowship of the Royal Society.
- Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
- Fellowship of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
- Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society.
- Received a Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.
- Turing Award.
- One of only six members of the World Wide Web Hall of Fame (rightfully so!)
- Among numerous other awards and national honours.
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