30 October 2001

Bonn, Germany: The World Wide Web is a collaborative venture and a "creation of volunteers", said Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist credited for inventing the Web in 1989.

"In developing the Web as a volunteer, I was not alone," he told a webcast at a UN open doors event late Sunday in Geneva via video conference link from Boston, where he directs the World Wide Web Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Web, he said, was "developed by volunteers all over the world." He said he started out the idea by putting out some software on the Internet. "It was picked up by people, who just like me, were really doing it on the side…The Web is a grassroots thing. I was not the only person at all, by a very long way, to put in volunteer time."

Mr. Berners-Lee was answering email questions and addressing comments from a live audience at the UN offices in Geneva during the UN Open Days, which were held under the theme of the UN International Year of Volunteers 2001.

Sharon Capeling-Alakija, Executive Coordinator of the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV), referred to Mr. Berners-Lee as the "number one volunteer in cyberspace, because of the enormous gift he gave the world in the World Wide Web".

In response to an email question from UNV Online Volunteering Specialist Jayne Cravens, Mr. Berners-Lee said he was pleased to hear that people were volunteering from their homes to assist development efforts around the world. "It is music to my ears to hear that this is happening," he said, adding that in the area of Web technology, volunteers translate specifications into different languages in efforts to extend the reach of technology.

Also participating in Sunday's webcast via remote link was Sean Osner, a UNV Programme Officer with the Jordan Information Technology Community Centre project. Mr. Berners-Lee told him he "would not be one to say that Internet access should be promoted above health care, clean water, contraception and so forth around the world". However, it was important to ensure low bandwidth connectivity "to more places, into every village rather than to get (Web) video in some cities".

This webcast and another moderated by Jayne Cravens on Saturday on the role of volunteers to address the Digital Divide, were sponsored by CERN, the European Partical Physics Laboratory in cooperation with UNV and the International Telecommunication Union.

View the webcasts at:

http://unv.web.cern.ch/UNV/programme.htm