Harvard Science Book Talk: Tim Berners-Lee, in conversation with Juan Enriquez, "This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web"

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Perhaps the most influential inventor of the modern world, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a different kind of technologist. Born in the same year as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, he famously distributed his invention, the World Wide Web, for no commercial reward. Its widespread adoption changed everything—transforming humanity into the first digital species. Through the web, we live, work, dream, quarrel, and connect.

In this intimate memoir, Berners-Lee tells the story of his iconic invention, exploring how it launched a new era of creativity and collaboration while unleashing powerful forces that imperil truth and privacy and polarize public debate. With his trademark humor and candor, he recounts how he arrived at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, as a young engineer, and soon came up with the astonishing idea of adding hyperlinks to the then-nascent Internet. His goal was to unleash a wave of creativity and collaboration for the benefit of all—a goal he’s pursued to this day.

Peppered with rich anecdotes and amusing reflections, This Is for Everyone is a gripping, in-the-room account of the rise of the digital world. As the rapid development of artificial intelligence brings new risks and possibilities, Berners-Lee also offers a crucial guide to the decisions ahead—and shows how our digital lives can be reengineered for the sake of human flourishing rather than profit or for power.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989 at CERN in Switzerland. Since then, through his work with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Open Data Institute (ODI), the World Wide Web Foundation; through the development of the Solid protocol; and now as CTO and cofounder of Inrupt, he has been a tireless advocate for shared standards, open web access for all, and the empowerment of individuals on the web. A firm believer in the positive power of technology, he was named in Time magazine’s list of the most important people of the twentieth century. He has been the recipient of several awards, including the Seoul Peace Prize and the Turing Prize, widely recognized as the Nobel Prize for Computing. He was knighted in 2004 and later appointed to the Order of Merit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Juan Enriquez is a leading authority on the economic impact of life sciences and brain research on business and society as well as a respected business leader and entrepreneur.  Author and co-author of multiple bestsellers including As the Future Catches You, The Untied States of America, Evolving Ourselves, and RIGHT/WRONG: How Technology Transforms Our Ethics.  As a business leader, advisor, and renowned speaker, Juan works directly with the CEOs of a number of Fortune 50 companies, as well as various heads of state, on how to adapt to a world where the dominant language is shifting from the digital towards the language of life. He is a TED All-Star with ten TED talks on a variety of subjects, as well as dozens of TEDx talks. He was the founding Director of the Harvard Business School's Life Sciences Project. After HBS, Juan became an active angel investor, founding Biotechonomy Ventures. He then co-founded Excel Venture Management. Mr. Enriquez serves on multiple for-profit boards as well as a variety of non-profits including The National Academy of Sciences, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, WGBH, Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center and Questbridge. He sailed around the world on an expedition that increased the number of know genes a hundredfold and was part of the peace commission that negotiated the cease fire with the Zapatistas. He graduated from Harvard with a B.A. and an M.B.A., both with honors.

For more information and videos of Harvard Science Book Talks, see https://science.fas.harvard.edu/book-talks.

Contact Info: science_lectures@fas.harvard.edu