The Internet at 20

On March 13th, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal for "a large hypertext database with typed links" to CERN. This basic idea became the structural foundation of the internet. A collection of independent pages with hypertext links. At first the idea generated very little interest, and now it is a worldwide network.

By 1990 all the tools necessary for the internet to run were built. The idea started out as a way to enhance communication between CERN scientists but soon went public. As an academic project, the internet grew and was at first popular at Universities and other laboratories. Almost immediately the commercial aspects of the internet were realized and grew into the web we have today.

In this video at the TED Conference, Tim Berners-Lee talks about the history of the web and his ideas for moving forward.