The inventor of the World Wide Web has received the Imagining the Internet Areté Medallion for his nearly three decades of outstanding work as a distinguished humanist innovator and technologist role model.
Tim Berners-Lee, one of the world’s most distinguished humanist innovators, was recently awarded the Elon School of Communications Imagining the Internet Areté Medallion, recognizing the English engineer and computer scientist for his contributions and positive impact on the global future.
In 1989, Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web at CERN and – with the permission of CERN – gave it to the world for free. In subsequent years, he has dedicated himself to enhancing and protecting the Web’s future. He is a founding director of the World Wide Web Foundation, which seeks to ensure the Web serves humanity by establishing it as a global public good and a basic right. He is also director of the World Wide Web Consortium, a global Web standards organization he founded. In 2012, he co-founded the Open Data Institute, which works to develop an open, healthy data ecosystem in which people can make better decisions using data and manage its harmful impacts. Additionally, he has advised a number of governments and corporations on ongoing digital strategies.
Throughout his distinguished career, Berners-Lee has received numerous accolades, including more than 10 honorary doctorates, enshrinement in the Internet Hall of Fame, inclusion in Time Magazine’s “100 Most Important People of the 20th Century,” and knighthood from H.M. Queen Elizabeth in 2004.
Berners-Lee is the second recipient of the Areté Medallion, following technology pioneer Vint Cerf, who was honored in 2016.
Imagining the Internet student-faculty teams have interviewed and recorded Berners-Lee’s appearances at several major events. This list includes the 2009 Global Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the World Wide Web 2010 and FutureWeb conferences in Raleigh, N.C., and the Internet Hall of Fame Induction in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2012.
Areté – pronounced era-TAY’ – is a word used to describe people who live up to their fullest potential in a life embodying goodness and excellence. The Imagining the Internet Areté Medallion was established to recognize innovators, change agents and thought leaders who have dedicated their lives to initiating and sustaining significant contributions that have positively impacted the global future.
About Imagining the Internet
The mission of Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center is to explore and provide insights into emerging network innovations, global development, dynamics, diffusion and governance. Its research holds a mirror to humanity’s use of communications technologies, informs policy development, exposes potential futures and provides a historic record. It works to illuminate issues in order to serve the greater good, making its work public, free and open.