Man Who Invented Internet Wins Millions

[Firefly]

From CNN.com (notice that they didn't mention Al Gore).

ESPOO, Finland (AP) -- The MIT scientist credited with inventing the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has been awarded the first Millennium Technology Prize.

The award, a 1 million euro (US$1.2 million) cash prize, is among the largest of its kind, and was awarded for the first time. It was established in 2002 and backed by the Finnish government.

The prize committee on Thursday said Berners-Lee's contribution strongly embodied the spirit of the award, given "for an innovation that directly promotes people's quality of life, is based on humane values, and encourages sustainable economic development."

Pekka Tarjanne, chairman of the prize committee, underlined the importance of Berner-Lee's decision to never strive to commercialize or patent his contributions to the Internet technologies he has developed.

Berners-Lee is recognized as the creator of the World Wide Web while working for the CERN Laboratory in the early 1990s, the European center for nuclear research near Geneva, Switzerland. His graphical point-and-click browser, "WorldWideWeb," was the first client that featured the core ideas included in today's Web browsers, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, and Mozilla among them.

The prize is administered by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation, an independent fund supported by the Finnish government and a number of Finnish companies and organizations. Future prizes will be awarded every two years. The eight-member international awards committee is headed by Pekka Tarjanne, a professor at the Finnish Academy of Technology.

This year, 74 nominations were received for the award. Universities, research institutes, and national scientific academies are eligible to nominate prize winners.

Berners-Lee, who is originally from Britain, was knighted in December last year. He continues to work at the standard-setting World Wide Web Consortium at MIT.

An award ceremony will be given in Helsinki on June 15.

[Rayder]

There's a kid in our school who's dad worked on the Internet project.

[TheN00b]

Heh, that guy damn well deserved that money, and the recognition. The Internet is anamazing tool, a fun thing to mess with, and is directly responsible for the electronics and gaming boom.

[Madcow]

The porn industry should have paid him a lot more than that.

[I Hate Pants]

Originally Posted by Madcow

The porn industry should have paid him a lot more than that.

[Red October]

You mean it wasn't Al Gore?!

j/k

Originally Posted by Madcow

The porn industry should have paid him a lot more than that.

Hard Core Agree. They should give him a money shot.

[UncleDynamite]

In other news, haters of pop-up ads murder Tim Berners-Lee for inventing something that allowed pop-ups to thrive in the first place...

[Jaged]

Originally Posted by UncleDynamite

In other news, haters of pop-up ads murder Tim Berners-Lee for inventing something that allowed pop-ups to thrive in the first place...

Two words..... Google Toolbar

[DeadTeddy]

that's what's nice about the internet. the people who created didn't want money and even fought for it to be free. he could have made it so that you had to pay him 0.0001 for every hour online, and he would have become richer then bill gates. same for the inventors of email.

[Cyanide]

Tim Berners-Lee did not invent the Internet. He invented the world wide web. The Internet had been around for almost 10 years at that time. The web is simply one small part of the internet.

[Vis Armata]

He is just one of the many people responsible for the rise of the net from a government network to a vast source of free information. DARPA researchers laid the groundwork (the TCP/IP scheme, connecting the networks) for the transmission of information; this guy created a scheme for linking information together (once commercial traffic was allowed onto the net, after 1991), the protocol known as the World Wide Web.

[JetRaiden]

Al Gore isnt gonna be too happy about this one. I wouldve be surprised if he sabotaged his hotel room with spray paint already.

[jsloan31]

he got paid ONLY 1.2 million?

geez, he should have gotten more...