The Vision Behind the Well and the Web

The Well was the first name of what we now know as the Web and started as a democratic and empowering tool for humanity. The WELL, launched in 1985 as the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, provides a watering hole for some articulate and playful people from all walks of life. Learn more about it at well.com

Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee is known as the father of the World Wide Web or WWW, a system of interlinked hypertext documents contained on the Internet. He is a British engineer and computer scientist and MIT professor credited with inventing the World Wide Web, making the first proposal for it in March 1989.

The famously modest man never went on to commercialise his work. Instead he worked on expanding the use of the net as a channel for free expression and collaboration. He is now making great efforts to get more countries connected to the web, specially in the African continent. Attend to his speech at Ted in the video bellow.

You may learn more about the impact of the Web in our lives on a series of specials by the BBC called The Virtual Revolution. There are 4 episodes, the forth covers specially this social change and the step in our evolution. Worth watching all 6 parts of episode 4 embedded bellow and the other episodes 1 to 3 are great too.