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Tim Berners-Lee awarded the British Order of Merit

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the accolades-and-acolytes dept.

MarsBar writes "The BBC is reporting that Sir Tim Berners-Lee has been awarded The Order of Merit, a royal award granted directly by the Queen. Previous recipients have included Florence Nightingale, Sir Winston Churchill, Bertrand Russell, Graham Greene, Sir Edward Elgar, Mother Teresa and Margaret Thatcher."

7 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. We all should know by now by the_kanzure · · Score: 5, Informative

    Internet != WWW.

  2. Good for him... by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Simply put, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the Johannes Gutenberg of the Internet.

    His simple invention, and his polite, modest manner should make him the IT icon of our time. I wonder, though, how many people could even tell you what he's done or recognise him by his picture?

    Good for him. He deserves all the recognition that he can get.

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
    1. Re:Good for him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "I wonder, though, how many people could even tell you what he's done or recognise him by his picture?"

      Being unknown to the filthy masses is the mark of the true Engineer.
      Sales and Marketing types are popular, Engineers get shit done.

    2. Re:Good for him... by pipingguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.

    3. Re:Good for him... by SenseiLeNoir · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well the key is, Sir Tim did a LOT to make it accessible. Sure some of the ground work was already done, namely: TCP/IP, SGML, MIME, etc.

      What Sir Tim and his team did is:
      - Created HTML, which was arguably much simpler than SGML (yes it also allowed some mediocre "designers" to also design pages, but ultimately it lead to greater adoption)
      - Created the HTTP protocol, which by far and large was the greatest "enabler" of the technology, ie allow anonymous access to the information held in a ordered and secure manner.
      - Still actively in charge of W3C, and creating new standards, largely without breaking old ones.
      - Helped begat XML.
      - Did not try and patent it.

      So his contributions are large, and he is still actively participating. More importantly, he didnt try to patent it, but freed it.

      --
      Have a nice day!
  3. Meanwhile in other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Steve Ballmer was awarded the Iron Cross which he immediately threw across the room when he learned that Himmler was considering migrating the Reich's infrastructure to GNU/Linux.

  4. previous recipients.... by silver · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Previous recipients have included Florence Nightingale, Sir Winston Churchill, Bertrand Russell, Graham Greene, Sir Edward Elgar, Mother Teresa and Margaret Thatcher."

    Damn, talk about the odd one out!

    --

    Silver