Inventors
Tim Berners-Lee
b. 1955 · Author of the Web’s three small standards
CERN / global
Living people are shown with a symbolic plate, not a likeness.
The internet already moved files. In 1989 a CERN memo asked for documents that point at other documents. HTML, HTTP, and the URL were the small machine. CERN placed the web in the public domain. The plate is hypertext on cards, not a face — a living engineer, a symbolic still life.
Why it mattered
- Made the internet usable without a manual.
- A licensing decision as important as the code.
