Washington - Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited as inventor of the World Wide Web, on Monday announced the launch of the World Wide Web Foundation, which aims to ensure and extend the Web's free and open benefits to all the world's people.

The foundation has received a $5 million seed grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

"The Web is a tremendous platform for innovation, but we face a number of challenges to making it more useful, in particular to people in underserved communities," said Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and co-director of the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI).

"Through this new initiative, we hope to develop an international ecosystem that will help shape the future Web. A more inclusive Web will benefit us all."

The foundation will fund projects around the world related to research, technology and social development, with an initial focus on underserved populations.

Related Links:
http://www.webfoundation.org/donations/knight2008/press-release

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7613201.stm

http://www.webfoundation.org