THROWBACK THURSDAY: When I told you who invented the internet

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Before you start commenting, I know he didn’t invent the internet.

Looking for content for this week’s Throwback Thursday, I unearthed this editorial from 2012. You have to understand what was going on at the time. The Olympics had just started. It was the opening ceremonies, celebrating the recent achivements Brits had made in pop culture. Brian May of Queen was there, as was Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney and many other easily identifiable faces. Alongside all the other famous Brits in the opening ceremonies was an unassuming man behind a truly ancient computer.

That man was Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who most certainly did not invent the internet. However, he did invent the organizational and display protocols we refer to as “The World Wide Web.” He invented web pages and the protocols used to display them. Without him you couldn’t click on anything, and you couldn’t read this blog. In the article I linked above, I tell you all about him.

Some say the internet is the most important invention all time after the wheel and fire. If that’s true then Sir Tim is one of the most important people of all time.. Yet, when relatively unimportant person Meredith Vieira saw him, she couldn’t identify him. Neither could any of the other commentators.

To put it mildly, I went off the rails.

Yep, the first thing I did was pause the thing and start shouting at the other people in the room. It’s not like those other Brits were unimportant, I said, but come on. If you had to give up only one thing — Elton John music or the entire internet, which would you choose? At the time, I shouted out loud about how we spend way too much time paying attention to people who don’t matter and nowhere near enough time on people who do. (If only I’d known then what the next 11 years would bring.)

But, my tantrum was 11 years ago and you’d think I’d probably be over it by now. You’d think wrong. Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where incredibly influential scientists are easily recognized and members of OJ Simpson’s lawyer’s family aren’t? (You actually get 10 points if you know the family I’m referring to, and you lose 10 points if you recognize any of them by name. So there.)

Think about it for a second, you are actually reading this blog, and you are probably online for hours and hours every day, and all of that started because of one person. One person, and would you recognize him walking down the street? You have one person to thank for online shopping and streaming video and Wikipedia — well actually other people did create those things but they couldn’t have done it without that one person — and most people don’t know who he is.

A little bit more to mention

I’d like to point out that the history of computers has been one where brilliant people work based on the efforts of other brilliant people. It took hundreds or perhaps thousands of people to get the internet to the point it is today. Along the way there have been milestones like the invention of Ethernet, of e-mail, of the protocols that allow streaming video, and so much more. All of these people deserve to be honored. But my point is — and yes I’m still making it — that those other people weren’t featured in a ceremony showcasing famous British people. Sir Tim Berners-Lee was, and sadly none of the top minds in pop culture knew who he was.

And that, my friends, is just wrong.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.