1980, June

Between June and December 1980, Timothy Berners-Lee is a consultant software engineer at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. There he writes his first program (named Enquire) for storing information using random associations. This program formed the conceptual basis for the future development of the World Wide Web. In 1989, Berners-Lee proposes the Global Hypertext Project, which led to the development of what is now known as html-based web pages - which is the most important platform of information exchange on the Internet.
Since the Internet is certainly one of the most important technologies for social, political and economic change in China (as in many other places), I consider it appropriate to mention its origins. Today, Berners-Lee is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, Senior Researcher at MIT's CSAIL, and Professor of Computer Science at Southampton ECS.

Literature:

Tim Berners-Lee (2000): Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web. (Collins) ISBN: 006251587X

External Web Links: