Timehost: If you've ever wondered about where the Web is headed next, this is your chance to swap ideas with the man who dreamed it all up, Tim Berners-Lee. Mr. Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 while working for CERN, or the European Particle Physics Laboratory, in Geneva, Switzerland. He saw it as a way to more effectively share and distribute information not just within a corporation, but around the world. He was the guy who thought up "http://", HTML, URLs and started the ball rolling on creating an editable browser, too. Now his idea has sparked a communications revolution that some say is among the greatest the world has ever known. In fact, TIME thought so, when it named Tim Berners-Lee among the 100 most influential minds of the 20th century earlier this year. You can read Mr. Berners-Lee's profile from the TIME 100 by going to www.time.com/time100/scientist/profile/bernerslee.html He now heads up the W3 consortium outside of Boston, a group made up of various companies and organizations who are dedicated to pushing the Web to its full potential. He's recently written a book about his experiences in creating the World Wide Web. The book is called "Weaving the Web" and is being published by HarperSanFrancisco on Oct. 1, this Friday! Welcome, Mr. Berners-Lee!

Tim Berners-Lee: Pleased to be here.

Timehost: Well, the first question on everyone's minds, I'm sure, is: "How did the idea for the Web come to you?"

Tim Berners-Lee: There was no "Eureka!" moment, though everybody would like to think that there was one. Lots of independent things led me to think of information being stored in the connections between things. I realized that the information systems I use, even though they were all very different, could each be represented by a website.

technodrome9901 asks: What were your goals in the beginning of the WWW project, and how have they changed?

Tim Berners-Lee: From the beginning, they've been making the web into a powerful universal space of information, and in that respect, they have not changed at all. So far, the richness of the things you find on the web has been amazing, but the ability of a real user to create things and organize information, for example, by making links, is fairly limited.

www_deathmerchant_com asks: What sites do you look at regularly?

Tim Berners-Lee: I don't let people know which particular commercial sites I prefer, because I have to remain neutral as director of the W3C. I use the consortium web site all the time because our international team lives on the web.

Louisk39 asks: Did you ever in your wildest dreams think that e-commerce would be such a large part of the expansion of the Net?

Tim Berners-Lee: I've always felt that e-commerce is part of the web being a universal space.

Timehost: One sign of the power of the Web is that people use its name interchangeably with the Internet, as this next question shows:

nebula2341 asks: Why do you think the internet caught on so relatively quickly?

Timehost: The question refers to the Web . . .

Tim Berners-Lee: First of all, let's get clear the difference. The internet is a collection of computers, which was put together during the 1970's. When I proposed the Web in 1989, the internet had been around for 15 years. You could use e-mail, you could store files on ftp servers, and people could access them, but it was very complicated. The web was the step to make accessing a remote document just one click. The internet spread really quite slowly. It started in research, moved into universities, and many people only heard about it when the web became available as an easy way to use it.

abnokshis asks: What work do you see the web needing for its future operation?

Tim Berners-Lee: There is a huge amount of development to the technology, most of which users should not see. From the point of view of users, the biggest change I want to see is to make everyone capable of writing web pages and making links just as easily as people can make e-mail messages today. An example I use is a photograph album. I would like to be able to share my digital photos with family all over the world, and all join in together with manipulating the photos in the album, and adding our own photos. At the moment, the web is a bit like millions of TV channels, in that it's not a creative space. I used to think that all we needed was a good web page editor, like Amaya. But now I realize that apart from the tools we need much more infrastructure to make collaboration possible. We need digital signatures to verify who people are, and we need easy control over group membership and access to web pages.

alienfrommars_99 says: I don't have a question for Mr. Berners-Lee; I only want to tell him its an honor for me to be able to hear what he has to say (or rather read what he has to say).

Tim Berners-Lee: Thank you, that's very kind.

Louisk39 asks: In the great scheme of things, would you rank the Web with other great innovations like the printing press? Is this a turning point in human societal evolution?

Tim Berners-Lee: Whether it is a turning point in societal evolution depends not only on the technology -- but also how we use it! The web does give us lots more choices about how we organize ourselves: we can make social structures which are independent of geography, for example. However, we are still human beings. We have a limited amount of capacity to deal with many things. We don't have more time in the day or better concentration. We still have to choose who and what we are involved in. The web gives us a wider choice. I really would like to think that in the end we will find that we can make a more civilized society under the new rules!

watsoj2 asks: Do you believe that attempting to control content on the web is futile?

Tim Berners-Lee: Depends whether you are the reader or a government. Let's get a few things straight. Some things are illegal online or offline. They will continue to be. Child pornography and fraud are examples. When it comes to "appropriate" or "quality" behaviour, in my opinion, these things are very subjective. So filtering by a user is good (essential!) and censorship by governments is bad. Yes, in the long term I think it is futile, but some governments have a lot of control.

caniaskaquestionplease asks: Why did you choose not to make money off the web?

Tim Berners-Lee: I do get a salary from MIT, you know! :-) But to answer your question underneath . . . If I had taken a proprietary control of the Web, then it would never have taken off. People only committed their time to it because they knew it was open, shared: that they could help decide what would happen to it next . . . and I wouldn't be raking off 10%! The "Gopher" project -- very similar to the WWW -- took a dive when the university which started it decided to license the technology. A lot of people dropped it immediately and would have done the same for the Web.

Timehost: Could you tell us a little about your work as head of the W3C and of promoting the accessibility and freedom of the Web?

Tim Berners-Lee: The World Wide Web Consortium is a forum for all kinds of companies and organizations and individuals who are concerned about the Web's future. We try to make sure it evolves without disintegrating into several webs. I have a few roles -- I and the full time staff try to make sure that all the bits fit together. We facilitate the process of arriving at consensus about new technology. (Check www.w3.org / for details)

ilovestinkyfeet asks: Do you think it's worthwhile for colleges to offer courses in html, since things seem to be changing so quickly?

Tim Berners-Lee: I think HTML 4.0 will be a standard which you will be able to read in 200 years time. There is so much HTML. There is also enough investment in it that any new format will have ways of moving an HTML website into that format. But -- do use standard HTML!! If you use some proprietary version then you could be stuck with material which makes no sense in 200 years time -- or 20. Use validator.w3.org to check your web pages for being standard. That's a free service.

doctor_sputnik asks: Do you regard XML as a promising competitor, or rather, a distraction to further development of HTML?

Tim Berners-Lee: XML is a new standard -- suite of standards -- coming out of W3C. ( www.w3.org/XML ) XML doesn't replace HTML directly -- it replaces the SGML family of languages of which HTML was one. XHTML is equivalent to HTML but in the XML family. XML is simpler than SGML. It makes creating new languages (like XHTML but different) easier. In some ways this is great -- it means that we might have interoperable spreadsheets and calendars and all kinds of stuff -- but in some ways it is a worry as we may get 235 different XML languages for calendars -- and so no interoperability. The plan is for HTML itself to become modular now, and be adapted for use even on TVs and cellphones. See www.w3.org/MarkUp

sveik99 asks: Do you see the Web of today as Democratic or more Capitalist in nature?

Tim Berners-Lee: Democratic or Capitalist? Hmmm. when I bought my ticket to the USA I was *assured* that the US could be both at once ;-) Because it is a decentralized system, societies which are (basically) decentralized can flourish using the Web. This includes the market economy -- for example -- and democracy -- which is often considered to be less centralized than other options.

abhishekkothari asks: Will the web help make e-commerce as large as international trade is today?

Tim Berners-Lee: I think in the end the vast amount of commerce will be electronic because for one thing, it will rely on digital signature for security. We have a way to go before we are there though, both in technology and legislation.

findkevin asks: Do you think internet communication was what Nostradamus saw as people talking over vast distances without making a sound?

Tim Berners-Lee: I can't really say - and it is difficult to ask him now. Pierre de Chardin, various people have been rumoured as predicting the whole thing.

Stamm444 asks: When will your newest book be published?

Tim Berners-Lee: I have only written one ("real," dead trees) book. It is out now! See www.amazon.com/exec/obi dos/ASIN/0062515861/timberneleeshome/002-6174436-8 53084/ It is called "Weaving the Web". It tries to answer all these questions.

Timehost: We know you have to run, but thank you very much for joining us!

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