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Tim Berners-Lee Attains Knighthood
sandalwood writes "Tim Berners-Lee has been promoted to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for coming up with that 'intarweb' thing we all use. Characteristically modest, he said that he was an ordinary person who created something that 'just happened to work out.' He will join luminaries like Isaac Newton, Francis Drake, and... Mick Jagger."
"Tim Berners-Lee", of course, is just a clever pseudonym for Al Gore. The article failed to mention this.
CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
..now he can slay orcs and save princesses like the best of us.
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Never criticize religion on Slashdot. You will be modded down for "Troll" no matter how factual it is.
Canadian Cynic, canadian politics is less boring than you
Tim Berners-Lee Attains Knighthood does that come with +2 armour?
No, you don't have to be English, you can get an honourary knighthood. And Tim Berners-Lee IS English. And ARPA didn't invent the world-wide-web. Just the internet (www implies HTTP and HTML)
1. No, you don't have to be English.
A great many Scots, Welsh, Irish, Canadians, etc have been knighted.
2. Some things weren't invented by Americans, the Web is one of them. Deal.
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur (anything said in Latin sounds important)
One wonders where we would be today with the WWW if Tim had chosen to patent his invention?
Except that it's not really an honour from the queen. Decisions are made by some top secret bunch of civil servants, vetted by the Prime Minister and then "suggested" to the queen. Not much better, admittedly, but an improvement none the less.
Reform is coming, but the present style of system won't go away until the monarchy finally keels over. I'll celebrate as much as anyone on that day, but until then the honours system is the only way to formally recognise people's acheivements. Inventing Hypertext certainly deserves some recognition IMHO.
During the early 90's his research was put down by other Hypermedia researchers. Their view: "we've been there, done that; your implementation is too simple, too restrictive; our research is towards two directional linking..., other systems before you are better...". His first paper was rejected by the Hypertext Conference in 1991, and he settled for a demo table in the same venue.
The key to his success is that he made it simple and free (as in beer)! Others, like Nelson's Xanadu, were too ambitious. Others, like Hypercards, Hypernotes, Hyperdisco, etc were never free.
The BBC article highlights that in one of the side boxes: "Offered free on the Net".
I'm glad to see TBL get some more recognition. The original concepts behind html and semantic markup were well designed for their time and deserve more recognition. 99% of web designers today seem to have no idea why they should be using 'em' instead of 'b' tags, nor do many seem to even care about semantics and platform neutral markup. TBL and his semantic web ideas need all the recognition they can get.
A few years ago I watched a special on PBS about the birth of the Internet. The astounding thing was watching a video featuring a dozen guys hanging around a chalkboard laying out the eight or so connections that formed the forst internet web. No fancy electronics, just a groupd of guys standing around a chalkboard and talking.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Preface: not a troll
Could someone please explain to me the British fetish for its Monarchy ? The government is now a constitutional democracy, so why is there so much homage paid to the archaic traditions and figureheads of the past?
A great example of this is the insane media land-grab over Princess Diana's death. Hundreds of thousands of people die in traffic accidents each year - why was hers so deserving of three whole months of media coverage, weeping, wailing, and moaning?
It's not political. Politically, the British monarchy doesn't do much of anything. It is mostly a cultural thing. The monarchy is a cherished institution of Great Britain. It represents the history and culture of a great country. It has endured for hundreds of years as one of the most stable governments in the West. The British monarchy has one of the oldest democratic traditions in the world, and Britain gave birth to the philosophers from which our founding fathers derived their inspiration. Getting rid of the British monarchy would be like getting rid of the monuments of Greece, because they take up space that could be put to better use.
There is no need for everything in the world to be cold and logical. If a country wants to hold onto a 'silly' institution as a symbol of their nation, so be it.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur (anything said in Latin sounds important)
Tim Breners-Lee *is* English. He was born in London and graduated from Oxford. While ARPANET was an American project, Breners-Lee worked on the web while he was at CERN, and it was first made available at CERN in 1990.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
that everyone knows the names of Edison, and for the most part, Tesla. But, when it comes to folks such as Tim Berners-Lee, J. Prespert Eckert, John W. Mauchly, etc. nobody has any clue who you're talking about.
Unless I'm mistaken, the revolutions that these folks spurred were arguably as important to the state of modern society as was the lightbulb, telephone, or rail transit.
So, the next time England goes to war are Elton John, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger going to be leading the charge?
errr - no it isn't.
KBE does mean Sir Tim.
See here.
Sir Tim HAS been knighted. He didn't get an OBE or some other lesser award. The parent post is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Politas
I for one, welcome our British web overlords.
Ah, here's the correction, from some article on knights in E! Online (hardly a credible source, but the first credible source I could find after 5 minutes googling):
A few Americans--Rudy Giuliani in 2001, for example--have received what's called Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. American knights can't use Sir before their names, but they can choose to add KBE to the end. So, the next Indiana Jones movie will be directed by Steven Spielberg KBE.
OK, then, that's settled.
"Why Subscribe?" Good question...
Whatever else a knighthood brings with it it's got to be a great pickup line and a geek can use all the help available.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
I don't understand. I thought Elton John was a queen.
In America, the royals are the sons and daughters of the greatest of all the robber barons.
In Britain, the royals are the sons and daughters of the greatest of all the feudal barons [which is the same as robber].
In America, you are allowed to become a noble or start a new line of nobility by getting filthy rich and then buying yourself a Senator. You can then pass your wealth to your children so they can be nobles for having done nothing.
In Britain, the Queen hands you a medal, and then you can possibly get a seat for yourself and your descendants in the House of Lords. You can then pass your wealth to your children so they can be nobles for having done nothing.
At least in the UK, the monarchy has a lot of interesting history behind it, and some way cool outfits. Swords and capes! Now that is cool. Plus, the titles are awesome - for the king when the next one is: "His Most Britannic Majesty".
In America, well, we just say, "Mr.Gates".
This is my sig.
On Americans receiving honors from foreign states:
US Constitution
I.9.8: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
BBC link explains nothing
This explains all.
There is a difference between KBE and CBE - the K confers knighthood
MrCreosote Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump!Meow!Thump! "You're right! There isn't enough room to swing a cat in here!"
Good for him! and about time too.
And why stop at a knighthood? They should make him an Url.
GROGGS: alive and well and living in
This will certainly be redundant, but there are many that have refused Knighthood for example they include rock star David Bowie, Nigella Lawson, John Cleese, Kenneth Branagh, Albert Finney, Vanessa Redgrave, and many more. Knighthood is a pathetic extension of imperialism that no longer exists.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
Well, by definition, no, unless you subscribe to some of the weirder resolutions to the "Grandfather Paradox".
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
The "three letter prefix" is exactly what you describe -- a very public recognition of what his ideas have achieved.
Al Gore made an honest claim about something that he was justly proud of. And somebody deliberately misquoted him to make it appear that he was claiming to have "invented the internet".
It wouldn't be so annoying if this deliberate campaign hadn't been so successful at painting this honest (if dull) politician as a "liar", and possibly costing him the election (which was stolen anyway).
Look, I've been on the Net since 1988 (via world.std.com, the first commercial ISP), and I can assure you that Al Gore was the first person in the Senate to take it seriously. He provided funding when the NSF was going to pull the plug, and the all the commercial internet providers were squabbling over peering agreements. Read some back issues of "Boardwatch" magazine to learn about all this, OK?
Just because you don't like to hear it doesn't mean it's not true. And something isn't funny just because it's repeated a lot.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
You have to owe allegiance to the Queen, like Canadians and Australians
Actually, it's a no-go for Canadians, who are barred from accepting foreign honours. Just ask Terry Matthews and (especially) the notorious ex-Canadian Lord Black of Crossharbour.
What Canadians do have is the Order of Canada, which is essentially a knighthood without the titles (sir etc...). The Order of Canada is awarded by the Governor-General on behalf of the Queen of Canada, who just happens to be the same person as the Queen of England - who isn't allowed to bestow titles on Canadians. Simple, eh?
In other news, for a good review of the British honours system see here.
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
Al Gore made an honest claim about something that he was justly proud of. And somebody deliberately misquoted him to make it appear that he was claiming to have "invented the internet".
... right down there with Fox News and the National Equirer.
That "someone" who deliberately misrepresented what Al Gore said (and whose misrepresentation was then repeated by other, lazy journalists ad nauseum) would be Declan McCullagh of WiReD magazine, whose yellow journalism redefines the color yellow, and who enjoys enough of a rapport with slashdot editors to have his byline placed on any story of his slashdot links to (unlike, say, this story here, and just about every other story linked to).
He single handedly drew attention to the LiViD (Linux DVD) project by publishing a hysterical article about DVD pirates writing software (before it was even working, and knowing full well that the project wasn't about copying DVDs, it was about playing them on Linux, something one couldn't do back then. He subscribed to the mailing list, he knew exactly what he was doing.)
His career is littered with the destroyed public image of more people and projects than I can reasonably count, and his deliberate, premeditated sabataging of Al Gore by deliberately misquoting and misrepresenting him places him at the lowest level of journalism
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
The thing that Vint Cerf et al says is completely true?
What Gore said was completely uncontrovertial until, as FreeUser and K8Fan say, Declan McCullagh reprinted the quote claiming it meant Gore said he "invented" the Internet. Nobody used the word "Invented" or claimed Gore meant "invented" until McCullagh stuck his oar in.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
The Internet name had been used for this existing network for years before Gore ever got involved.
Well, yes and no. The case of the first letter is significant here. The term "internet" was used in the ARPAnet community by the late 70's. But the term "Internet" was consciously introduced in the early 80's with a more precise meaning.
There were a lot of early writings that attempted to make a distinction. An "internet" was more or less what we now call a LAN or an "intranet", a collection of machines using one or more types of comm hardware, with IP used to make them all play nice together. There were (and still are) many "internets". Each may consist of a number of different (hardware) networks, but at the IP level, they can be treated as a single network. The IP protocol intercedes for the software to make the hardware networks interoperate.
The "Internet" was conceived as a top-level internet that connected all of them as a single world-wide network. This was significant not because it needed new technology, but because it was to be a permanent part of the world's communications, not under the control of any single agency or government. The significant innovation here was the idea of a permanent comm system with distributed, cooperating management.
People in academia had talked about this, of course. But by the early 80's, it really hadn't been done. There was a world-wide ARPAnet, yes, and lots of little internets in different organizations. But their interconnections were partial and transitory. I well remember the frustrations of trying to send email from within one company or school to someone in another. At that time, the UUCP email system was often much more reliable, because its store-and-forward approach didn't depend on routing and permanent connections. Even today, with much of the Internet using transient dialup connections, email depends on a store-and-forward scheme, and most home machines and portables can't put things on the web, because they don't have permanent connections. So the Internet with a capital 'I' still hasn't really been fully implemented.
Al Gore rightly deserves a lot of credit for funding development of "the Internet", which happened in the 80's. He can't take much credit for "internet" development, which happened mostly in the 70's.
Of course, if you use an OS that doesn't make case distinctions, you might not understand the difference.
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.