Why HEP Invented the Web

We are going to tell part of the story, little-known by most people, of how one of the most profound and revolutionary developments in information technology, the invention of the World Wide Web, occurred at CERN, the High Energy Physics laboratory in Geneva. In fact one man, Tim Berners-Lee, invented the Web, not “HEP”. So our question should really be re-phrased as: “What was the influence of HEP in leading to the Web’s invention?” In the discussion that follows, we will make use of some personal recollections, partly my own but also those of Sir Tim Berners-Lee himself (“TB-L” in what follows) in his book “Weaving the Web” [1] (abbreviated below as “WtW”).