William Caxton was sure that the printing press he’d bought was a great idea. But he didn’t realise that it would change the world. Five hundred years later, in 1989, Tim Berners Lee had an idea.

British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee is in the news at the moment, setting out a new “Contract for the Web” that web companies, governments and the likes of you and I should abide by ...

This work would eventually evolve into hypertext, HTML and the World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee in 2000 (William Plowman/AP) In 1980, CERN was the place to be for cutting-edge computer research.