The Day I Turned Down Tim Berners-Lee: A Story of Missed Opportunities

Imagine being presented with an idea that could change the world, a concept so revolutionary it would redefine how we connect and share information. Now, imagine turning it down. This is the story of one such moment, a tale of hindsight, innovation, and the ever-elusive nature of predicting the future.

The Visionaries Who Paved the Way

Before the World Wide Web, there were pioneers who foresaw the need for a more intuitive way to manage and access information:

• Van Bush: In 1945, Bush, then the US government's Chief Scientific Advisor, articulated the problem with existing information systems. He observed that the human brain works by association, not by rigid library catalogs. Bush proposed a machine called the "Memex," which would link related pieces of information, anticipating the hyperlinked world to come.
• Doug Engelbart: Inspired by Bush's vision, Engelbart created the NLS (Online System) in the mid-1960s at Stanford Research Lab. This system, designed to augment human intelligence, featured a five-finger keyboard and the world's first computer mouse, enabling users to navigate between documents and graphics in a way that foreshadowed cloud computing.

The Rise of Hypertext

As personal computers emerged in the 1980s, the stage was set for hypertext systems. My company, Owl, developed a system called Guide for the Apple Macintosh, delivering one of the first hypertext systems. This innovation gained traction, with Apple introducing HyperCard and publications like Byte magazine and Communications of the ACM dedicating special issues to hypertext.

We further developed a PC version of Guide, which became quite mature. This system allowed for the delivery of documents over networks and featured a markup language based on HTML, which we called HML (Hypertext Markup Language). It was capable of handling very large documentation systems over computer networks.

The Encounter with Tim Berners-Lee

In late November 1990, at a trade show in Versailles, I was approached by a young man named Tim Berners-Lee. He told me about his proposed system called the World Wide Web. The name struck me as pretentious, especially considering the system ran on his computer in his office.

Berners-Lee was convinced his World Wide Web would take over the world and tried to persuade me to write the browser for it. His system lacked graphics, fonts, and layout; it was just plain text. I found it interesting but ultimately decided against pursuing it.

The Missed Opportunity

In the following years, the hypertext community also didn't immediately recognize the potential of the World Wide Web. In 1992, Berners-Lee's paper was rejected for the Hypertext conference. However, in 1993, at a conference in Seattle, Mark Andreessen demonstrated his browser for the World Wide Web, and it became clear that this was the future.

The following year, in 1994, the Hypertext conference was held in Edinburgh, and I had no hesitation in inviting Tim Berners-Lee as a keynote speaker.

Lessons Learned

This experience places me in the company of others who missed significant opportunities:

• Dick Rowe, who turned down The Beatles.
• Gary Kildall, who was unavailable when IBM sought an operating system for the IBM PC, leading them to Bill Gates.
• The 12 publishers who rejected J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter.

On the other hand, there's Mark Andreessen, who wrote the first browser for the World Wide Web and, according to Fortune Magazine, is worth $700 million. But, as the saying goes, is he happy?

This story serves as a reminder that innovation can come from unexpected places, and sometimes, even the brightest minds can miss the significance of a groundbreaking idea. It's a lesson in humility, the importance of open-mindedness, and the unpredictable nature of technological progress.