The Humble Beginning That Reshaped Global Communication
On 12 November 1990, a British physicist working at CERN set in motion one of the most significant technological revolutions in human history. Tim Berners-Lee, then 35 years old, circulated a memorandum entitled "WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project" that would fundamentally transform how humanity accesses and shares information.
Berners-Lee had joined CERN as a fellow in the particle physics laboratory, bringing with him a growing fascination with computer networking and information sharing. Drawing inspiration from Isaac Newton's famous observation about "standing on the shoulders of giants", he recognised that scientific progress depended on researchers' ability to access data across departmental, institutional and even national boundaries.
From Vague Concept to Global Revolution
The journey began over eighteen months earlier, in March 1989, when Berners-Lee first presented his "Information Management: A Proposal" to Mike Sendall, head of CERN's On-line Computing Group. His vision described "a 'web' of notes with links between them" that could organise the laboratory's vast data output without requiring major technological breakthroughs.
Sendall's now-legendary response—"Vague but exciting..."—marked the beginning of one of history's greatest understatements. This modest endorsement allowed Berners-Lee to continue developing his idea, eventually collaborating with Belgian systems engineer Robert Cailliau, who was independently working on similar challenges at CERN.
The 1990 proposal outlined a surprisingly modest plan: a team of four software engineers and one programmer would work for three months to create basic browsers, with a second phase enabling users to contribute information. The entire project budget amounted to approximately CHF 80,000—roughly one and a half times the average Swiss salary at the time.
The Web's Explosive Growth and Lasting Impact
What began as an internal CERN project using existing hypertext technology quickly demonstrated its world-changing potential. The crucial breakthrough came from CERN's decision to make the web's code and protocol royalty-free, allowing rapid global adoption.
The release of early browsers like Mosaic in 1993, followed by Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, revealed the web's enormous commercial potential. Netscape's 1995 initial public offering achieved a $2.9 billion market valuation, sparking the dot-com boom that would see AOL acquire Netscape for $10 billion just four years later.
Today, the web's legacy is visible in the dominance of technology corporations. The world's most valuable companies—including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Broadcom—collectively represent over $20 trillion in market capitalisation, all built upon the foundation Berners-Lee established with his 1990 proposal.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, knighted in 2004, initially sought simply to make information more accessible to researchers. While he succeeded beyond imagination, he now faces the challenge of restoring his creation's original collaborative spirit in an era of corporate dominance. As he recently reflected, "We have the chance to restore the web as a tool for collaboration, creativity and compassion across cultural borders... it's not too late."
