This Is for Everyone: The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web

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.

Author: Tim Berners-Lee
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 09/09/2025
Pages: 400
Weight: 1.33lbs
Size: 9.19h x 6.29w x 1.33d
ISBN: 9780374612467


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 05/01/2025 pg. 9
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2025
Publishers Weekly 08/11/2025

About the Author
Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He subsequently founded and directed the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3), which oversees international standards and protocols governing the web. He is also a director of the World Wide Web Foundation; an emeritus professor at MIT; a professor at Oxford University; the cofounder and CTO of Inrupt.com, a company that aims to increase users' control of their digital lives; and the author of Weaving the Web. His many honors include the ACM A.M. Turing Award, known as the Nobel Prize of computing; the Seoul Peace Prize; the Prince of Asturias Foundation Prize; and the Japan Prize. In 2004 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, and in 2007 he received the Order of Merit.