A Sunday Times Bestseller The inventor of the World Wide Web explores his vision’s promise―and how it can be redeemed for the future. Perhaps the most influential inventor of the modern world, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a different kind of technologist. Born in the same year as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, he famously distributed his invention, the World Wide Web, for no commercial reward. Its widespread adoption changed everything―transforming humanity into the first digital species. Through the web, we live, work, dream, quarrel, and connect. In this intimate memoir, Berners-Lee tells the story of his iconic invention, exploring how it launched a new era of creativity and collaboration while unleashing powerful forces that imperil truth and privacy and polarize public debate. With his trademark humor and candor, he recounts how he arrived at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, as a young engineer, and soon came up with the astonishing idea of adding hyperlinks to the then-nascent Internet. His goal was to unleash a wave of creativity and collaboration for the benefit of all―a goal he’s pursued to this day. Peppered with rich anecdotes and amusing reflections, This Is for Everyone is a gripping, in-the-room account of the rise of the digital world. As the rapid development of artificial intelligence brings new risks and possibilities, Berners-Lee also offers a crucial guide to the decisions ahead―and shows how our digital lives can be reengineered for the sake of human flourishing rather than profit or for power. Praise for This Is for Everyone “An affable and avuncular narrator . . . Berners-Lee’s decision to make the web public was characteristic; throughout his career, he has been a mensch. . . . In place of the usual [tech book] tics―the uncritical fetishization of AI, the insistence that technological advances will serve as a panacea, and the accompanying refusal to engage with political or philosophical questions―Berners-Lee is quite explicit that social conditions shape how technologies are deployed. He knows better than anyone that “the free, open access communications paradigm we have did not arrive like magic. It was the product of a fair amount of political wrangling,” much of which he is responsible for.” ―Becca Rothfeld, The Washington Post “Berners-Lee gave the online world not just a technology but an attitude. Call it a credo or . . . an aesthetic. It’s in the slogan he uses as his title: This Is for Everyone. Along with other Internet pioneers, he believed that the essential tools―shared protocols and software―should be available to everyone free of charge. No company or government should control the web―that was his vision . . . Nothing could be further from the early hopes of Tim Berners-Lee; yet he remains an optimist by nature.” ―James Gleick, The New York Review of Books "Part memoir, part manifesto, Berners-Lee’s chirpy book This Is For Everyone is both an engaging history of the origins and evolution of the web and an ingenious road map for how we can reclaim control over our digital lives. His big idea, which has now become his latest personal obsession, is to restore data sovereignty to every individual by redesigning the web . . . To his credit, the 70-year-old Berners-Lee is still fighting to preserve the web’s original promise, which, he argues, has been despoiled by malign users, rapacious corporations and authoritarian governments." ―John Thornhill, Financial Times “This Is for Everyone is a cool breath of air in an overheated room. Berners-Lee literally invented the world wide web, and he’s clear-eyed about the benefits and the dangers. The book is a reminiscence about how the web came into being, and contains some very sharp thinking about what we need to do now. The personality that comes through is charming, clever, self-effacing, interesting and thoughtful about his creation." ―Naomi Alderman, The Observer (UK) “Tim Berners-Lee’s This Is for Everyone is more than just an autobiography. This book is an insightful recounting of the development of the World Wide Web and a profound declaration on how humanity should remain at the center of technology as we move forward in the twenty-first century.” ―Al Gore, former US vice president “ This Is for Everyone takes us on a journey with this incredibly important man and his work as a visionary. Full of warmth and humanity, he is on a mission to fight for the integrity of the web: determined that his living, evolving creation will bring us all together in harmony.” ―Kate Bush, human “As a company running computer networks before the dawn of the internet age, Bloomberg was an early beneficiary of the towering wave of change that Tim Berners-Lee ushered in with the World Wide Web. His book offers a fascinating look at the origin and evolution of a world-transforming invention and how we can harness its potential as a force for good.” ―Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg an