Among some of my favorite British Heroes; Pink Floyd, Rowan Atkinson, Paul McCartney, J.K. Rowling and John Cleese (indirectly in his Direct TV commercials), another famous Brit was given the spotlight during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. His name; Tim Berners-Lee, and, if it weren’t for him, you probably would not be reading this or any other blog post. He is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web.
Yes, that’s right, it’s just one man that invented this whole thing – way back in 1989. That amazes me. I thought it was something that just came together or evolved over time and space and that nobody really knew who where it came from.
Reports say that he has a net worth of $50 million. He is also the director of the World Wide Web Consortium and the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation.
It’s interesting to reflect on what life would be like right now without this significant advancement. It will be interesting to tell my kids and grand kids when they grow up, “Yep, I remember a time when there was no internet!”
My brother-in-law, whose name just happens to be Tim Bimmerle (pronounced BIM-er-lee), was watching the opening ceremony with me. Sad to say, his net worth is not quite as high as Sir Berners-Lee, but we all really appreciate him just the same.