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."

Don't you have to be English to be knighted?

[ObviousGuy]

ARPA was an American military project.

Re:Fuck Tim Berners-Lee

[david614]

Well, pardon him for departing from your standards of perfection. I for one don't fault him for accepting an award that he so obviously deserves. History notwithstanding, being knighted is a high honor (honour!) for a Brit. I say congratulations to him.

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[account_deleted]

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Real credit for www goes to

[Anonymous Coward]

Netscape. It would have never taken off without a decent web browser... Mosaic would have never taken off.

What if...

[FlashpointWork]

One wonders where we would be today with the WWW if Tim had chosen to patent his invention?

Re:Fuck Tim Berners-Lee

[BenjyD]

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.

The key to his success: he made it free

[dgerman]

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".

Good

[HRbnjR]

I'm glad to see TBL get some more recognition. The original concepts [w3.org] 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.

Serious Question

[EmCeeHawking]

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?

Re:Fuck Tim Berners-Lee

[be-fan]

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.

Re:Serious Question

[Art Tatum]

I don't know. But I ask the same question about our American media. Why the hell does our media latch on to stories like the Laci Peterson murder, Kobe Bryant, or Michael Jackson? Plenty of people are murdered or raped every day, but they don't get media coverage. I'm not on the jury, so the details of these cases are completely useless to me. Yet that's about all you can find on major media outlets. For the last time, we don't give a damn about Jackson, Bryant, Peterson, Limbaugh, or anybody else. Just shut up about it already and report some REAL news.

Re:Fuck Tim Berners-Lee

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, Denmark is the oldest monerchy in the world, other than that you're probably right.

too bad

[Anonymous Coward]

It's too bad being knighted isn't what it used to be. Now days, everyone in pop culture has been knighted, so those who truly deserve recognition are lumped in with the lights of Paul McCartney, McJabber, Elton John...

It amazes me...

[Guardian Hacker]

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.

Re:Fuck Tim Berners-Lee

[peeping_Thomist]

Hundreds of other great men and women have been able to resist the kow-towing to the monarchy. I which he had joined them.

Sir TBL

[snot.dotted]

Well I wonder if TBL will ever be asked to go on a crusade to the holy land or re-claim brittany from those Frenchies. Theres certainly no damsels in distress, imprisoned in a tower by an evil uncle. There are no dragons left to slay and the holy grail got sold on ebay for $5.99 Sorry but a real knight belongs in our stories and myths. The highest honor we can give TBL is not a three letter prefix Sir, but the recogniton that his work, kick started all this web stuff and his ideas for the furture of the web are more important than making a fast buck.

Re:Fuck Tim Berners-Lee

[be-fan]

The United Kingdom is a Constitutional Monarchy. It is very much a political thing. Despite the Crown's very limited role in politics they are by defination involved as the Head of State (not Head of Government).
>>>>>>>>>>>
Huh? You declare that the Monarchy is very much political, and then immediatelyl admit that it has a very limited role in politics. Which is it?

The "most stable" is a matter of opinion but I'll let that stand.
>>>>>>>>>>
FI said "one of" the most stable. The British government has been remarkably stable for hundreds of years. Unlike France, the democratization of Britain came not through a bloody revolution, but a gradual transition.

Have you ever heard of the Roman Republic? England wasn't a member of that.
>>>>>>>>>
I didn't say first, I said oldest. Generally, when we talk about the oldest of some thing, we do not consider things that no longer exist, like the Roman Republic.

Locke and Hobbes provided many ideas for the American Government. But so did Plato, Aristotle and numerous philosophers in France during the Enlightenment.
>>>>>>>>>>>
Yes other philosophers did influence the Founding Fathers. Some directly and others indirectly. But the primary philosophical basis for the American government was British philosophy.

England does not have a monopoly on those ideas
>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;
Did I claim it did?

and at the time, did not practice them.
>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;
While Great Britain did not practice the precise philosophy espoused by Lock and others, many of those philosophers' ideas were derived from British practice. Great Britain has been a free society for hundreds of years, even under the monarchy, and much existing pratice was codified by its philosophers.

If I recall correctly you still have a good deal of the Parthenon in the British Museum and the Greek have been asking for those pieces back for years.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
What's your point? I am not claiming that Britain is faultless. Indeed, as someone of Indian descent, I have an innate dislike of Britain and its colonial period. However, I do recognize a good thing when I see it. Great Britain has a very proud and rich history, and a tradition of freedom. The monarchy is a part of that, and is a cultural institution that should remain in place as a reminder of the nation's glory.

Re:Serious Question

[be-fan]

Plenty of people are murdered or raped every day, but they don't get media coverage.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Jefferson said that everyone is created equal, not that everyone is equally interesting. It's foolish to pretend otherwise. Everyone is more affected when something happens to someone they know, either personally or publically. The majority of the public is enjoys watching sports, movies, and TV, or listening to music. They know the personalities involved with these. Ergo, when something happens to one of them, they care about it.

Personally, I don't watch sports or TV all that much. I couldn't really care less what happens to Kobe Bryant. But, I am a devout liberal, so I like to follow the Limbaugh story to see if he gets justice. If the media breaks a story about Ann Coulter having a major heroine addiction, I know I'd watch intently. I also am a programmer and follow the OSS movement closely, so the deaths of the Ximian employees affected me. So please realize that you're not any different from anybody else. You follow certain things, and you'd watch the media closely if a major story broke concerning the things you care about.

PS> If you think the US media spends too much time covering things *you* don't care about, try the BBC. It's pretty good in my experience.

Re:Fuck Tim Berners-Lee

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, because they were afraid of being ridiculed by their socialist chums [telegraph.co.uk] for selling out and or kissing up to the monarchy. Not having seen TBL reading out of the little red book lately, I see no reason why this shallow and superficial ( and meaningless ) gesture should prevent him from accepting this mark of recognition from a group of UK civil servants.

Keep refusing those honors, technologists! After all, you won't have any indie cred otherwise.

o<

Re:Sir TBL

[robindmorris]

The highest honor we can give TBL is not a three letter prefix Sir, but the recogniton that his work, kick started all this web stuff and his ideas for the furture of the web are more important than making a fast buck.

The "three letter prefix" is exactly what you describe -- a very public recognition of what his ideas have achieved.

Re:Geez man, get the pickle ...

[K8Fan]

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.

Re:Tsu Doe Nihm

[DunbarTheInept]

To do what he claimed would have required time travel. The internet ALREADY EXISTED. His bill just added more infrastructure to it. That's no small thing, yes, but it's still a smaller thing that what he claimed it did.

Some dignity for knighthood

[Anonymous Coward]

PROBABLY the only knighthood one can agree with in this year's list. It is pathetic that the whole English rugby team got honoured.

There was a time, I assume, when knighthood meant something. Now it's a way for beleagured prime ministers to show the public how in-touch and cool they are.
(As you will know, the prime minister (President Blair as he is known to his friends) suggests the honours list.

To summarize: Congrats, TBL - for all the others (all but 2 or 3) - give me a bucket

(Arthur, England)

Re:Fuck Tim Berners-Lee

[harmlessdrudge]

The Irish Republic's "we're not Britain" complex is quite ancient and predates the idea of Britain; the Romans never reached Ireland and it retained a separate cultural identity despite a long history of efforts over hundreds of years to change it forcibly. And there's rather more to it than "no taxation without representation" Citizens of Republics are generally proud of the fact that the have no monarchy, no established church, and no hereditary privilege (all citizens are born equal--no "Lords" or hereditary peers). The Irish Republic is one such, like America. It would be FAR more accurate to say that American national identity is defined by a "we're not British" sentiment. The Christmas issue of the Economist had an interesting comparison between how well Kings and Queens of England++ (ie., and of whatever else they ruled at the time) stacked up against US Presidents. Guess who comes out on top! :-) Anyway, the Republic of Ireland is an independent country. Get over it.

Lot has been said about knighthood here

[haggar]

I sense that americans are in a sort of awe, giving to the title of Knight more weight than it deserves.

But britons certainly know that there are and have been many "Knights" that they wouldn't want to be associated with. Lord Archer, for one. And a whole host of showbiz people whose only mind was to get rich at the expense of art.

Re:The key to his success: he made it free

[doom]

No, nothing from Xanadu will be added to the web. Nothing but ActiveX extensions will be added to the web.

All right, that's it. You don't get away with speaking of Xanadu and ActiveX in the same breath. Here we go.

First of all, the Xanadu project, despite being a "failure", has been enormously influential. You may not know much about it, but just about every single person who's messed around with creating a hypertext system does, certainly Tim-Berners Lee did (and not incidentally, the original Netscape programming team certainly did also).

Try doing some google searches, try understanding what Xanadu was about, then pick a feature from it and see if you can figure out a way to kludge it into the web. If you pull it off, you'll have achieved something worthwhile. Off the top of my head: transclusion, back-links, micropayments, versioning, fine-grained linking...

By the way, the Xanadu code was open-sourced some years ago: xanadu source code [udanax.com]