Rating: 
Summary: An absolute must-read for Internet professionals
Review: Mr. Berners-Lee (in 2004 he became "Sir Tim") created the World Wide Web. He also created the first Web server and the first Web browser, both in 1990. In addition, Berners-Lee is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium. That pretty much sums up his qualifications for writing a book about the Web! I bought the audio book and have listened to it to and from work. It's a little more personal because Tim is actually reading it to you. This book is for any HTML author or professional working in an Internet-related profession. I recommend it greatly to those working on browser-based applications; it's important to recall the original intent of HTML and the browser. The World Wide Web can become so much more, and reading this book will cause the reader to wonder and dream of new possibilities.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute must-read for Internet professionals
Review: Mr. Berners-Lee (in 2004 he became "Sir Tim") created the World Wide Web. He also created the first Web server and the first Web browser, both in 1990. In addition, Berners-Lee is the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium. That pretty much sums up his qualifications for writing a book about the Web! I bought the audio book and have listened to it to and from work. It's a little more personal because Tim is actually reading it to you. This book is for any HTML author or professional working in an Internet-related profession. I recommend it greatly to those working on browser-based applications; it's important to recall the original intent of HTML and the browser. The World Wide Web can become so much more, and reading this book will cause the reader to wonder and dream of new possibilities.
Rating: 
Summary: From the Mouth of Sir Tim
Review: Pro: A recount of the history of the world wide web from the creator himself. Second pro, buying the book of the guy who gave us this really cool thing, and letting him reap a bit of financial reward. Okay, that's about it. If you are looking for a hard historical account of the web or the Internet's origins, you will only get a little bit of it here. Sir Tim recounts the internal tribulations of working at CERN and developing his hobby project in the first few chapters. After that, it becomes scattered and superficial. For a while he talks about DNS. Then he talks a bit about privacy. Then he wanders into ecommerce. The style is chatty and scant on solid information. Read the book; it's by Sir Tim. But buy another book to get the whole story.
Rating:
Summary: From the Mouth of Sir Tim
Review: Pro: A recount of the history of the world wide web from the creator himself. Second pro, buying the book of the guy who gave us this really cool thing, and letting him reap a bit of financial reward. Okay, that's about it. If you are looking for a hard historical account of the web or the Internet's origins, you will only get a little bit of it here. Sir Tim recounts the internal tribulations of working at CERN and developing his hobby project in the first few chapters. After that, it becomes scattered and superficial. For a while he talks about DNS. Then he talks a bit about privacy. Then he wanders into ecommerce. The style is chatty and scant on solid information. Read the book; it's by Sir Tim. But buy another book to get the whole story.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting look at history of web and future by its creator
Review: Since Berners-Lee played such a critical role in developing the web, his view on the history of it is definitely worth reading. Some of the history is a little bit mundane, but the outcome of the transformation of the Internet to the World Wide Web as we know it is not mundane. His view of the future of is worth thinking about, but just because someone creates something does not necessarily mean that they have particularly special insight into how will evolve.
Rating:
Summary: Not just the past
Review: The book is pretty easy and fun to read. I have a couple of reservations about the reviews that I have read. First, non-techies need to be aware that the World Wide Web is not the entire Internet. It is a major and important part of what we think of as the on-line experience but there is no sense of how the communications structure began or has evolved. Second, the later part of the book lays out a vision of where Tim would like the web to evolve to. This is valuable reading for entrepreneurs trying to be ahead of the curve for future ebusiness as well as thought provoking for anyone interested.
Rating:
Summary: Without a doubt, the best explanation of the Web.
Review: The Internet is a communications network, created in 1969, connecting computers to other computers all around the globe. The World Wide Web, on the other hand, is nothing but a set of protocols for allowing computer users to share information on that network. It was invented and launched in 1991 by Tim Berners-Lee, who practically single-handedly imagined it, developed it, and promoted it, all to foster the free interchange of information over a network connecting previously incompatible computers and hardware. As obvious as it seems in hindsight, it was only through considerable perseverance that the system came into being at all. For the people who advocate a truly open information system, Berners-Lee is a modern hero. While Marc Andreessen and James Clark jumped into the web business and made a fortune with Netscape Navigator, and while Bill Gates made another fortune by leapfrogging Netscape into the web browser business, Tim Berners-Lee stands pretty much alone in his unselfish devotion to the principle rather than the almighty dollar. Weaving the Web is Berners-Lee's personal account of the World Wide Web. It is, without a doubt, the best explanation of what the Web is and how it came to be. With the help of Mark Fischetti, it is written in a straightforward style that can be understood even by people who have no technical knowledge of computers. It is also an inspiration for anyone who has ever imagined that ideas alone can change the world. If you want to read a vision of the future, and how one man's vision has changed the present, would you trust someone like Bill Gates, or would you trust someone like Tim Berners-Lee? My vote is for Berners-Lee. -Edward Samuels, author of The Illustrated Story of Copyright
Rating:
Summary: 1st half instructive; 3rd quarter self-serving; then OK
Review: The tracing of challenges to launch break-through ideas in an ambivilant or hostile environment is very interesting -- and useful; particularly in view of its ultimate impact. But after the first half of the book on this topic, it degenerates to a self-engrandizing testimonial which seriously tempts putting down. The last quarter of the book is once again interesting as a view to the future, so don't ditch it when you get tired of the back-patting.
Rating:
Summary: Others get rich but Tim Berners-Lee deserves to be famous
Review: The world (us) is not recognizing enough Tim Berners-Lee's contribution, extraordinary insight, and relentless behind the scene efforts. If one has any doubt that a few individuals with a vision and a participative belief system can change the world, this book is a Must Read. The first part of the book is a say-it-as-it-is account of how Tim's vision and belief system (global connectivity, keep it simple, open-source, no control, etc.) brought the WorldWideWeb into being. The last part of the book will leave you with the impression that we're just at the beginnimng of the journey and that there is much more in Tim's vision than today's web. Our computers are the neurons of a mega-super-global brain under construction. For most tasks, these neurons still need us to decide what to do. If Tim's vision is being implemented, in a few years (5-10?) these "neurons" will act independantly, decide by themselves what to do, understand and make sense of the vast amount of information that they will have collected. When he presents that vison, TBL says "I get the same distant look in people's eyes as I did in 1989 when I tried to explain how global Hyprerttext would work." That didn't stop him then. Buy this book and support his efforts to make the web OUR common intuitive brain.
Rating:
Summary: too long, too detailed
Review: This book gives a very detailed account of the uphill battle the author had to fight in his invention. While this could be interesting to a student of organizational management, it's kind of boring for the average reader. The book could accomplish its goal in half the length.
| 
