Background

The Hypertext, the World Wide Web

25/12/1990

While an independent contractor at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland, Tim Berners-Lee proposed a project based on the concept of hypertext, to facilitate sharing and updating information among researchers.

He developed hypertext to make files on a remote computer appear as if it were on the machine by using links. He called the new invention the World Wide Web.

Berners-Lee's breakthrough was to marry hypertext to the internet. In his book Weaving The Web, he explains that he had repeatedly suggested that a marriage between the two technologies was possible to members of both technical communities, but when no one took up his invitation, he finally tackled the project himself.