MEDIA ADVISORY Berners-Lee and Kahle 2025

Contact: John Zipperer, VP, Media & Editorial, Commonwealth Club World Affairs, jzipperer@commonwealthclub.org (preferred) or 415-597-6715

SAN FRANCISCO (Date 2025) — On Thursday, October 9, two internet legends will take the stage of Commonwealth Club World Affairs in downtown San Francisco for a conversation with Wired senior correspondent Lauren Goode.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Brewster Kahle will be in conversation about the rise of the internet, its continuing and explosive impact on society, the importance of the Internet Archive and other developing issues in the growth and use of the internet.

Tim Berners-Lee is the inventor of the World Wide Web, HTML, the URL system and HTTP. Berners-Lee proposed an information management system on 12 March 1989 and implemented the first successful communication between a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client and server via the internet in mid-November of that year. He devised and implemented the first web browser and web server and helped foster the web's subsequent development. He is the founder and emeritus director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which oversees the continued development of the web. With Rosemary Leith he co-founded the World Wide Web Foundation. In April 2009, he was elected a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences.

Brewster Kahle, founder and digital librarian of the Internet Archive, is a passionate advocate for public internet access. He has spent his career intent on a singular focus: providing universal access to all knowledge. Soon after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kahle helped found the company Thinking Machines, a parallel supercomputer maker. In 1989, Kahle created the internet's first publishing system, called the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS). In 1996, Kahle founded the Internet Archive, and he co-founded Alexa Internet, which helped catalog the Web.

Location: Commonwealth Club World Affairs, 110 The Embarcadero, Taube Family Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web, HTML, the URL system and HTTP

Brewster Kahle, Founder, Internet Archive

Moderator: Lauren Goode, Senior Correspondent, Wired; previously with The Verge, Recode, and The Wall Street Journal

Introduction by Gerald Anthony Harris, President, Quantum Planning Group; Chair, Technology & Society Member-led Forum, Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California

7 p.m. doors open & check-in, 7:30–8:30 p.m program (all times Pacific Time)

The cost is $30, $60 with a book; Club members receive price discounts, and it is free for the Club’s Leadership Circle members and for students with a valid I.D. (without a book).

This in-person-only program is open to Club members and the public. Details and tickets at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2025-10-09/building-and-preserving-web-conversation-sir-tim-berners-lee-and-brewster-kahle

Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California is the nation's oldest, largest and most active public forum. The nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, founded in 1903, produces hundreds of live programs each year on politics, business, the environment, international affairs, personal growth, education, arts, social issues, and more. Speakers have included presidents and scientists, activists and artists, business leaders and celebrities. The Club produces two nationally syndicated weekly radio programs, its videos have received tens of millions of views on YouTube, and its podcasts have been downloaded nearly 28 million times. Commonwealth Club World Affairs was formed in 2023 from a merger between The Commonwealth Club of California and World Affairs of Northern California. Additional information available at commonwealthclub.org.

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