{"id":2760,"date":"2023-06-30T07:48:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T11:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=2760"},"modified":"2023-06-30T07:48:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T11:48:03","slug":"a-gift-for-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/30\/a-gift-for-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gift for the World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>.
\u00a0
For most people, the name Tim Berners-Lee doesn\u2019t ring a bell.
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But what he accomplished 33 years ago will almost certainly impact every day of your life this summer.
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The British software consultant (who is now known as Sir<\/em> Tim Berners-Lee) singlehandedly dreamed up the World Wide Web.
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No, he didn\u2019t invent the Internet.\u00a0 That was the product of many hands over many years (and yes, it did include the earnest efforts of then-Senator Al Gore).\u00a0 Berners-Lee was looking for a way not just to link computers, but to help people access a whole world of information.
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Early in the 1980s he was puzzled as to how he could do a better job of organizing his personal notes.\u00a0 Then he had a brainstorm:\u00a0 What if he could use the Internet as an information-sharing platform for multiple computer systems?
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Between 1989 and 1990 he introduced the first web server; invented the first browser; created the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP, a way for computers to access Web pages); conjured up the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) system that gave every Web page its unique \u201caddress;\u201d and presented the first version of the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML).
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Other than that, he was a total slouch.\u00a0
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\u201cIt was really not a whole lot of work,\u201d he remembers, with what most of us would say is mind-bending modesty.\u00a0 \u00a0
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Of course, his dream of coordinating all the information on the planet wasn\u2019t of much value if others didn\u2019t know he had invented a system that made such a thing possible.
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He needed a name.\u00a0 A really compelling name.
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He considered The Mesh.\u00a0 <\/em>But that sounded a bit like \u201cThe Mess.\u201d\u00a0 Then he thought of The Information Mine.\u00a0 <\/em>But people would no doubt start calling it TIM, which might imply that he was on a raging ego trip.\u00a0 \u201cHaving people talk about finding it on the TIM would be awful.\u201d
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Ultimately he settled on the World Wide Web<\/em>.\u00a0
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His friends thought it was all a very cute idea.\u00a0 They also assured him it would never catch on.
\u00a0
Who could foresee that in September 2014 the number of global websites would surpass one billion, and that by November 2022 the total would exceed two<\/em> billion? \u00a0It\u2019s interesting to note that approximately 83% of all sites are currently dormant (that is, not actively maintained and visited).\u00a0 A number of those are \u201cparked domains,\u201d essentially placeholders for particular addresses.\u00a0 \u00a0
\u00a0
Nevertheless, something like three new websites are built every second<\/em>.\u00a0 Berners-Lee could never have imagined such growth.\u00a0
\u00a0
Of course, it\u2019s not always easy being a creative genius.\u00a0 He once received an indignant call from someone who was offended by his outrageous claims.\u00a0 They seriously doubted that he had \u201cwritten all that stuff\u201d by himself.\u00a0
\u00a0
At least he\u2019s unbelievably rich, right?\u00a0 That\u2019s perhaps the most amazing thing about Sir Tim.\u00a0
\u00a0
From the earliest days of the Web, he renounced all patent rights.\u00a0 Because he wanted this new means of exploration and information-sharing to grow, he insisted that it be open source \u2013 available to everyone.\u00a0 Patenting, he says, \u201cwould have scuppered the whole thing.\u00a0 It would never have taken off.\u201d
\u00a0
Either Tim Berners-Lee or the world was going to be profoundly blessed.\u00a0 He decided to vote for the rest of the world.\u00a0
\u00a0
When the apostle Paul was bidding farewell to the young church he had established in the ancient city of Ephesus, he made this memorable remark: \u201cIn everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said:\u00a0\u2018It is more blessed to give than to receive\u2019\u00a0\u201d (Acts 20:35).
\u00a0
Those words are a big deal for two reasons.\u00a0 First, \u201cIt is more blessed to give than to receive\u201d is the only time Jesus is directly quoted outside the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).\u00a0 Apparently that statement was so well-known among the earliest Christians that Paul could quote it as a generally accepted rule for life.\u00a0
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Second, it\u2019s always been counterintuitive.\u00a0 It flies in the face of common sense.\u00a0 Why would it be better for me to give<\/em> something than to get<\/em> something?
\u00a0
The key, of course, is the word \u201cblessed.\u201d\u00a0 Something wonderful happens whenever we choose to imitate God.\u00a0
\u00a0
God is a God who gives.\u00a0 Whenever we struggle to hang on to something, wrapping our hands around it as if our life depended on it, we actually become smaller.\u00a0 Weaker.\u00a0 Less able to receive the good things God is eager to share with us. \u00a0But whenever we open our hands and pass along God\u2019s treasures, our capacity to experience joy \u2013 and to help others experience joy \u2013 grows exponentially.\u00a0 \u00a0
\u00a0
Your best stuff, your best ideas, and your best hopes are all gifts from God that currently happen to be in your hands \u2013 because they are on their way to somebody else<\/em>.\u00a0
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And you don\u2019t have to do a Web search to find out that is hands down the richest way to live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to this reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here.\u00a0For most people, the name Tim Berners-Lee doesn\u2019t ring a bell.\u00a0But what he accomplished 33 years ago will almost certainly impact every day of your life this summer.\u00a0The British software consultant (who is now known as Sir Tim Berners-Lee) singlehandedly dreamed up the World Wide Web.\u00a0No, he didn\u2019t invent the Internet.\u00a0 That… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[152],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-generosity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2762,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions\/2762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}