What is Semantic Web?

Who is Tim Berners-Lee?

Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, often known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist who is widely recognized as the inventor of the World Wide Web. Born on June 8, 1955, in London, England, both of his parents were mathematicians who worked on the Ferranti Mark I, the first commercial computer.

Berners-Lee graduated from the University of Oxford in 1976, where he designed computer software for two years at Plessey Telecommunications Ltd. He then held several positions in the computer industry, including a stint as a software engineering consultant at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory in Geneva.

While at CERN in 1989, Berners-Lee proposed a global hypertext project, which would later become known as the World Wide Web. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP, and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.

Berners-Lee has been the recipient of several international awards, including the Japan Prize, the Prince of Asturias Foundation Prize, the Millennium Technology Prize, and Germany's Die Quadriga award. In 2004, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, and in 2007, he was awarded the Order of Merit.

In 1994, Berners-Lee founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards organization that develops interoperable technologies. He continues to lead W3C and promote the Web as an open, accessible, interactive, and universal community.

Berners-Lee is also a Founding Director of the World Wide Web Foundation, which seeks to ensure the web serves humanity by establishing it as a global public good and a basic right. He currently holds academic posts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at CSAIL (USA) and the University of Oxford (UK).

What is the world wide web foundation?

The World Wide Web Foundation, often referred to as the Web Foundation, was established in 2009 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. Its mission is to advance the open web as a public good and a basic right, aiming to achieve digital equality—a world where everyone has the opportunity to access and use the web to improve their lives.

The foundation's vision is to empower all people through the web, regardless of language, ability, location, gender, age, or income. It focuses on addressing three main gaps: content, research, and technology, which prevent a significant portion of the world's population from using the web effectively. The Web Foundation supports work that bridges these gaps, aiming to unleash the creativity of billions of new web users and leverage the web's capabilities to tackle global challenges such as poverty, conflict, healthcare, education, and climate change.

The foundation engages in advocacy, research, and innovation to shape policies and products for a better web. It has fought to expand internet access, defend net neutrality, protect online privacy, open up public data, and champion local innovation. The Web Foundation works with a network of partner organizations across 70 countries and has helped make internet access more affordable for over 600 million people in low and middle-income countries.

Key initiatives include the Tech Policy Design Lab, which collaborates with governments, companies, and civil society to create solutions for technology challenges; the Contract for the Web, defining responsibilities for building a better web; and efforts to tackle online gender-based violence and abuse.

The Web Foundation is a non-profit organization that relies on donations to continue its work and is registered as a 501(c)(3) in the USA. It operates from hubs in Washington D.C., London, Jakarta, and other locations, with a diverse team representing over a dozen nationalities.