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This Is for Everyone 2025
This Is for Everyone is a memoir written by Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, with assistance from Stephen Witt and released in 2025. The U.S. edition includes the subtitle The Unfinished Story of the World Wide Web. The book recounts the development and transformation of the internet, including major shifts like the rise of e-commerce, browser battles, search engine advancement, the dot-com crash, growth of social platforms, movement from desktop to mobile devices, and the arrival of artificial intelligence. It also outlines Berners-Lee's suggestions for improving the internet, particularly how users might regain authority over their online presence.
The initial chapters describe Berners-Lee’s early life in London, his time at the University of Oxford, and his beginning career at Plessey, a British electronics firm, followed by work at CERN.
The memoir was crafted with the help of ghostwriter Stephen Witt.
John Arlidge reviewed the book in The Times of London September 24, 2025 under the headline "Don’t panic, it’ll all be fine — Tim Berners-Lee on the future of the internet." He described it as a “naively optimistic” account, referring to the work as “This Is for Everyone,” which he claims is misleading. According to Arlidge, this history lacks organization and clear storytelling, with writing so poor it would embarrass even ChatGPT, along with significant gaps in information and overly hopeful views that leave readers dissatisfied by the end. In the acknowledgments, Berners-Lee thanks his collaborator, Stephen Witt, [...].
400 pages long, the book is structured without a clear narrative thread, which contributes to its criticism.
Details
- Publisher
- Macmillan
- ISBN
- 9781035023677
