Tim Berners-Lee not father of the web?

[Delta Whiskey]

http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/286641.html

"Tim Berners-Lee could have his title of 'father of the web' taken away, according to soon-to-be-published research.

The honour should instead be bestowed on Donald Davies, a Welsh scientist, who first developed 'packet-switching', whereby computers are able to send small amounts of information over a network."

[Stuart]

Erm, the Internet is not the web. The web is part of the internet. It may be the part that most people consider to be the internet, but the Internet also includes many other protocols and services that are nothing to do with the web. A distinction which the ironically named "Web User" appears to totally miss.

Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the web, and regardless of who invented the Internet (it wasnt just one person, despite what Al Gore said), he is the father of the web.

It's absolutely shocking that a magazine that claims to be all about the web and the 'best of the internet' should make such a schoolboy error as not even knowing the difference between the worldwide web (wot Berners Lee did invent) and the internet on which it is carried (wot he didn't, and nobody has ever claimed he did).

[Delta Whiskey]

You mean AOL Online isn't the whole Internet...

I don't often fire off emails to editors, but in this case I felt I had to ...

Claire,

I'm disappointed that a publication that styles itself 'web user' should make such a dreadful, howling schoolboy error such as the one in this article about Tim Berners-Lee: http://www.webuser.co.uk/news/286641.html .

Tim Berners-Lee invented the worldwide web, a technology that allows users to access information across a computer network using hypertext. The internet, on the other hand, is a global network of networks, which has many uses. Sharing web pages is just one of those uses. Confusing the network with one of the things you can do with that network is fair enough for the general home PC user, but for a publication such as yours it's unforgivable.

Your quote from Trevor Harris is also a gross over-simplification of how research into packet switching led to networks, then a network of networks (the 'internet') and then the worldwide web. Whether that's down to Harris himself or poor selective quoting by your reporter, I have no idea.

To be honest, the article is fundamentally wrong on so many levels, if I were you I'd just pull it right now. I doubt I'm the only one emailing you about it.

Yours in mild dismay,

[Pog66]

Originally Posted by Chris

I don't often fire off emails to editors, but in this case I felt I had to ...

likewise - appalling bit of reporting and wrong in so many ways.

[Hom3r]

Too be honest I thought the Web and the internet were the same.

**Gets coat**

[SB_07]

England 1 - Wales 0

[Tarantella]

For one vague moment there I thought "of my child" was the end of the thread topic title.