Proving that the internet is truly a part of great world events, father of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee made an appearance at the opening ceremony of this year’s Olympic Games in London.
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The man, known as the inventor of the web, also tweeted during his appearance. His tweet was displayed around the stadium, with the letters made up of ‘pixel’ squares set up alongside seats. With close to one-billion people watching, that’s what we call a tweet with reach!
This is for everyone #london2012 #oneweb #openingceremony @webfoundation @w3c
— Tim Berners-Lee (@timberners_lee) July 27, 2012
Berners-Lee is currently working closely with the UK government to promote open and free data on the web.
“He is one of the principal figures behind data.gov.uk, a UK Government site which aims to open up data acquired for official purposes for free re-use,” reports Computing UK.
The event also looked at how digital communications tools have become part of everyday life through the story of Frankie and June, two young people who get together via social networking on their mobile phones.
“The values and achievements of the Olympics will be amplified by the World Wide Web. It will be like millions of digital torches carrying the spirit of the Games to every corner of the world,” Berners-Lee said, according to a report in Pocket-Lint.
The event created a lot of buzz on Twitter, trending worldwide, though according to the social network the biggest did not come from Berners-Lee but British comedian Rowan Atkinson.
“The biggest spike in Twitter conversation during the Opening Ceremony? When Rowan Atkinson, a.k.a. Mr Bean, appeared in a hilariously memorable homage to the Olympians of ‘Chariots of Fire’,” says Twitter.
