Dean's column, Financial Times, May 12, 2008.
When the world wide web goes down, my whole day comes to a grinding halt. I cannot work, I cannot play, and all that is left is for me to do something upright and worthy, like going for a walk or, heaven forbid, talking to people...
...Then on Christmas day, 1990, the world changed. Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues at Cern, the European particle physics lab in Geneva, launched the first successful client-server communication via the internet and the world wide web was born. What Sir Tim managed to do was to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit and, by adding web browsers, servers and editors to the mix, made it possible for Cern to launch the first ever website in August 1991.
...In fact, Sir Tim has maintained his commitment to an open technology community, which has given impetus to the open source movement that continues to grow in importance...
..Sir Tim changed the rules of the game by inventing the web. Suddenly, it was possible to communicate with people all over the world. Electronic brochures turned into virtual retailers and one-way communication turned into social networks so people did not have to go for a walk or talk anymore...
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