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Sir Tim Berners-Lee Named Greatest Briton
mOoZik writes "BBC News is reporting that Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World Wide Web, has been named the Greatest Briton of 2004. Berners-Lee had this to say about the honor: 'I am very proud to be British, it is great fun to be British and this award is just an amazing honour.'"
It's not errant, it's a quote! Sir Tim was knighted by the Queen for a European invention and this has been reported on by the British Broadcasting Corporation. It's nice that you chaps across the Pond care enough to relay this, and even nicer when we're properly quoted - don't spoil it with ignorance now!
"Did Edison invent the light bulb?"
Yes, he did. And Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone. While other people had similar ideas, they are the people who pushed forward and got the job done so there fore, they are the inventors.
I'm so very sick of posts like this. There is always some holier-than-thou slashdotter who'll tell us how we should be ashamed of ourselves for developing technology instead of giving our money to cancer victims/sick kids/homeless puppies etc.
Let me put this out there for you: Who do you think has made a greater contribution to cancer treatment, Jane Tomlinson, or Tim Berners Lee?
Well, Tomlinson may have collected money that can be used to fund a few more researchers in a field where hundreds of millions are already spent, and finding the solution is not a matter of man-hours. TBL on the other hand, created a brilliant new communication medium that has completely revolutionized the sharing of information between people.
As somebody who works with research (though not directly related to curing cancer - shame on me!) I can attest that the World Wide Web is an invalvuable tool that has completely changed for the better the way scientists are able to cooperate, publish, and access each others information. Tim Berners Lee wasn't just good at begging together money: he actually created something great, something that brought society forward, something that has improved the efficiency and wealth of all walks of life.
When efficient treatments for cancer are found, Tim Berners Lee will have deserved some of the credit for it, like he deserves some of the credit for every scientific achievement from now on. All due respect to Miss Tomlinson, but her achievement does not close to compare.
The same thing goes, btw, to the recent post about the Linux community matching Gates' donation to childrens vaccines. Gates may vaccinate ten million children, but the result will most likely be that those children will have another twenty million children, also living in poverty, and also needing vaccines. The Linux community, on the other hand, has given to developing world a fantastic tool with which wealth can be created, and development spurred.
Let us not fall for the socialist fallacy that the only good thing one can do in life is to give away ones money. People like Tim Berners Lee CREATE wealth, which is a greater virtue then passing it around!
Why the hell was that modded "interesting", if not that for someone on /. knows who Schopenhauer is - well, no proof even for that since it's a fortune citing - ?
I, for one, found it interesting that another slashdotter might allude to the silliness of national pride, since, after all, it is taking pride in other people's accomplishments. Personally, I keep my national pride to a miniumum, since I'm no more responsible for the great things America has done than the awful things. Same goes for racial pride. I am not responsible for the great things others have done, nor am I responsible for slavery just because I'm white. I think people should be as proud as their skin color as they are of their hair color. Likewise, there should be no shame.
No I am not. The people who think he stole part of the web concept from others use the word stole in the wrong way. And I framed my comment more to get a discussion going on actually what does invent mean.
I find the best inventors and scientists recognise the idea that we do stand on the ideas from society and our peers.
Newton's "standing on the back of giants..." quote and all.
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said: "I drank what?" - Chris Knight (Val Kilmer)- Real Genius
Can't understand how anybody who still refuses to use the metric system can be so upset about an extra U...
(This is slashdot. Nobody can spell anyway. So if you want to start a flamewar you should rely on trusted methods like the metric system.)
People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
Let us not fall for the socialist fallacy that the only good thing one can do in life is to give away ones money. People like Tim Berners Lee CREATE wealth, which is a greater virtue then passing it around!
/and/ gave them away. Sounds pretty close to the socialist ideal to me.
Both Berners Lee and Torvalds did both though. They created the WWW and Linux
Both Berners Lee and Torvalds did both though. They created the WWW and Linux /and/ gave them away. Sounds pretty close to the socialist ideal to me.
Neither has hesitated to profit from his invention, as well they shouldn't. Both will tell you that the reason they released it for free wasn't altruism, but that it was the only way it could have evolved into what it became.
People bitched when Bill Gates gave $750 million to support immunization programs too. Most people need to tear other people down or they're just not happy. It's life.
How about the Semantic Web Initiative?
But what is the SIGnificance?
Neither has hesitated to profit from his invention, as well they shouldn't.
To the best of my knowledge, the only way Berners-Lee has made money from the WWW is the awards he has been given for the achievement.
Both will tell you that the reason they released it for free wasn't altruism, but that it was the only way it could have evolved into what it became.
Isn't that the same thing? They might not have grown into what they are now, but both individuals would almost certainly have made more cash for their inventions had they sold them.
I'm not even sure that Berners-Lee would have been able to sell his invention. His research was carried out at CERN, a mostly government-funded institution. So much for your socialist attack.
I don't know anything about Finland's education system but I'd guess also that Torvalds had some government funding while he was studying at Helsinki university and creating Linux.
Tim Berners-Lee did not invent the Internet.