Tim Berners-Lee - Agenda Setters 2008

Name: Tim Berners-Lee

Title: World wide web inventor

Position: 1    Last year: Not ranked

Why? Guardian of the web

Agree with panel rating?

• previous
• back to list
• Steve Jobs

Tim Berners-Lee, an Agenda Setter many times before, enjoys his first trip to the top spot. His win reflects the profound impact the web has on how we live and work today.

Berners-Lee is as relevant now as he was when he invented the world wide web back in 1989. He continues to push the boundaries of innovation as well as work tirelessly to bring the web to developing countries and maintain its openness.

It's the breadth and depth of his efforts that earn him the title of the most influential individual in the tech industry. As one Agenda Setters judge put it: "When he talks others listen."

Berners-Lee is a leading advocate of the development of the next-generation semantic web, in which 'intelligent' computers will be capable of analysing everything on the web and automatically performing tasks done today by humans, such as finding, sharing and combining information.

He heads up the Web Science Research Initiative with colleagues from MIT in the US and the University of Southampton in the UK to promote the study of web science and help lay the foundations for the future development of the web.

Through his directorship of the World Wide Web Consortium, which he founded in 1994, Berners-Lee is at the forefront of the development of web standards. He has also been an outspoken campaigner for net neutrality, arguing against restrictions on content, sites or platforms and the introduction of tiered services by ISPs.

Earlier this year Berners-Lee unveiled the World Wide Web Foundation to spread the web to developing countries and maintain its openness. He says the foundation, which was launched with a $5m grant, is needed to ensure the web serves humanity by connecting people.

The Agenda Setters panel praised Berners-Lee for being "a guardian and promoter of the fundamental social and technical innovation of our era, who is still pushing its boundaries and continues to set the agenda".

Here is an Agenda Setter about whom one can honestly ask: what would life be like without him?