Unless you are a truly hardcore nerd that name will mean nothing to you. But without him this world would be a totally different place. There would be no Chud, no Facebook, no Twitter and certanly no free porn. You see this is the name of the man who invented the World Wide Web.
In Scientific terms he is no slouch, one look at his Wikipedia entry will show you list of accomplishments and with the huge amounts of letters after his name you can see this is one seriously smart dude. Now I am not half as smart as him but I will try and explain the theory behind the Web as best I can.
In technical terms what he did was implement the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the Internet ** Which basically means that he created the world first web page,as a solution to a problem he was having sharing information. And from that, the World Wide Web was born.
That first web page is still around (http://info.cern.ch) and is now used to provide more information about reasons behind why it was set up. It’s a great read and I recommend you do take the time to do so.
But from those humble beginnings came without a doubt the biggest change in how we access information since the invention of the book but instead of filing a patent or claiming royalties he gave the idea away for free. Lee believed that the the technology should be available to all so that information could be shared freely without boundaries or restrictions and through his commitment to this cause it has become one.
These days he continues to work for a free Internet. He is one of the pioneering voices behind Net Neutrality, believing that ISP’s should provide a connection with no strings attached. He is also a firm believer in using the web as a tool for positive change, which ultimately is one of the most exciting things that it can be used for.
In summary he is one of the most interesting men you have never heard of, and for that Sir Tim, I salute you.
* The European Organisation for Nuclear research. The dudes who are trying to recreate the big bang by smashing Atoms together Really Fast in a big tube,. Or Large Hadron collider if you prefer.
**Yeah, I have no idea what that means ether