Q 01/05

Tim Berners-Lee is best known as the inventor of what?

A) The World Wide Web

B) The Internet

C) Electronic mail

D) The microprocessor

Answer · why

A) The World Wide Web

The Internet already existed; his contribution was HTML, URLs and HTTP layered on top of it.

Q 02/05

At which research organisation was Berners-Lee working when he proposed the Web in 1989?

A) MIT

B) Bell Labs

C) CERN

D) Xerox PARC

Answer · why

C) CERN

CERN was then the largest Internet node in Europe, which is what made joining hypertext to the network so tempting.

Q 03/05

On what date did Berners-Lee submit his information management proposal at CERN?

A) 1 January 1983

B) 12 March 1989

C) 6 August 1991

D) 30 April 1993

Answer · why

B) 12 March 1989

He redistributed it in 1990, and his manager's three-word verdict on it became famous.

Q 04/05

How did Berners-Lee's manager Mike Sendall describe the Web proposal?

A) "Bold, but premature"

B) "Interesting, but impractical"

C) "Clever, but pointless"

D) "Vague, but exciting"

Answer · why

D) "Vague, but exciting"

The three words are now among the most quoted in computing history.

Q 05/05

Berners-Lee was born in 1955 in which city?

A) Birmingham

B) Manchester

C) Oxford

D) London

Answer · why

D) London

Both his parents came from Birmingham and worked on early commercial computers.