Tim Berners-Lee

World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee conducted an oral history interview with Robert Colburn of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers History Center on April 9, 2004. He spoke of his childhood interest in electronics and his early days working with computers, and addressed many of the most significant issues dealing with the Internet, including privacy and censorship.

Speaking about the social aspects of the Web, Berners-Lee said, “The work we do is very much connected with its impact on society, and we spend as much time thinking about social phenomenon as a technical phenomenon … In fact, when you look at it as a communications phenomenon it’s all about evolving culture, which is all about groups and the relative pain for a group of being isolated or being joined. So it’s about sort of harmony and conflict in ways that start out mathematical, but very soon when you try to link to bring into the enterprise become very real and social and very emotionally charged relating with the history of people.”

To learn more about Tim Berners-Lee, read his profile on findingDulcinea.