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Berners-Lee created the Web while at CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) in Switzerland in 1990, as a method of keeping documentation current and available to the multitudes of researchers there. Some technologies for distributing information over a network were available, and implementations of hypertext applications abounded. Until then, however, no one had thought to connect the two. Berners-Lee created a simple implementation of hypertext called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), and extended it with the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), so that hypertext links could be created not only within one document or on a single computer, but among networked computers. For a communications protocol, he devised HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) to move data between a Web server and a client.

He did this on his NeXT computer, named info.cern.ch, including creating the first Web browser, aptly called WorldWideWeb. Berners-Lee's concept of the Web was primarily as a collaborative environment, so the first browser incorporated both browsing and editing components, and was intended to be as much a collaborative document-creation environment as it was a tool to find information.

Berners-Lee's innovations received a cool reception from CERN management, but they took off in the general Internet community. In 1994, he left CERN for MIT and helped create the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which he still heads as director. The W3C is something of a think tank for new Web-related technologies, with the goal of ensuring openness and interoperability. Among the W3C's most notable recent work is XML (Extensible Markup Language), which enables two-way communication between Web servers, thus facilitating the use of complex applications; XHTML, a new version of HTML based on XML; P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences), intended to give users more control over the use of their personal information on the Web; and RDF (Resource Description Framework), a standardized method for annotating Web pages to enable more meaningful searches. All these standards are aimed at making the Web a more flexible and productive medium for sharing information among both users and computers.

Berners-Lee's vision for the Web and the focus of his work have changed somewhat over the years. Of all the protocols and concepts he has devised, he cites the URI as his most important contribution because it defines a method for locating information anywhere. Today he is the champion of an idea called the Semantic Web, the goal of which is to represent the data available on the Web not only in a human-readable format, but also in formats that make it easier for computers to meaningfully act on information in Web pages. Through improved structuring of information, new applications are enabled, and old applications, such as search engines, are vastly improved. The work of the W3C and Berners-Lee constitutes the building blocks for an even better Web than we know today.

Without question, the technology of the Web will continue to morph and improve to meet future needs and solve new challenges. No doubt Berners-Lee will be happily steeped in the details of that evolution. We wouldn't be at all surprised to see him on this list again 10 years hence.