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2014 Internet Hall of Fame Interviews: Ben Segal

Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web at CERN. He was a young guy at CERN. He kindly said I was a mentor to him, because I was doing this operation of introducing and teaching protocols. I taught him socket programming and that sort of thing. And I noticed him as a young…eager beaver. And I watched the process of him inventing the Web, single-handedly. So, that’s the highlight and I would say that wasn’t a result…you know, direct result of what I did, but certainly I helped to create the ground for him, the environment for him, to make that invention at CERN. Because CERN was not a particularly fertile place.

Ben Segal’s Internet Hall of Fame 2014 Induction Speech

I want to just make a few remarks about mentors and protectors. Most of us here have needed either or both of those. So I want to talk about two people in particular without whom I wouldn’t be here. The first person you know, and the second person you almost surely don’t know.