Tim Berners-Lee and the Web of Links

In the 1980s, computer scientists around the globe faced a frustrating challenge. The Internet already existed as a vast physical network connecting computers through cables and radio signals. However, sharing documents between different kinds of computers remained remarkably difficult. Each computer system used its own unique formats, codes, and operating software. An electronic report written on one computer often could not be opened or read on a machine made by a different manufacturer. To trade notes, researchers frequently had to learn complicated commands or print out papers and mail them by hand.

A British computer scientist named Tim Berners-Lee observed this problem directly while working at CERN, a famous physics laboratory located on the border between France and Switzerland. CERN hosted thousands of visiting scientists from dozens of nations. Berners-Lee noticed that valuable information was constantly getting lost because new researchers arrived, finished their experiments, and left without an easy way to organize or pool their research. He realized that people did not think in rigid, separated folders; human memory naturally connects one idea to another.