Doha, Qatar, 17 March 2014:  Just a quarter of a century since the birth of the World Wide Web, Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) has invited its inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, to deliver a public talk about future challenges and opportunities facing the technology.

Speaking next week about the global impact made by the Web, Sir Tim will emphasise that the decisions to shape its development in a positive direction lie firmly within society's hands.

Dr Ahmed K Elmagarmid, Executive Director of QCRI, said, "Tim has single-handedly touched the lives of most people on earth through his invention of the World Wide Web.  He is uniquely qualified to help us see the future of the Web, and how we maximise its benefits for humankind."

He added, "QCRI is proud to be working with Sir Tim and the MIT-CSAIL team as part of our joint on-going research that is delivering benefits for people in Qatar and beyond."

The lecture, which is titled 'the World Wide Web and the Next 25 Years', will also highlight why principles of integrity, openness, and individuals' freedom to use technology unimpaired should underpin its governance. 

Sir Tim will discuss how he believes the World Wide Web can maximise its benefit to humanity by using its power to promote scientific collaboration to solve major problems, apply democratic and rational principles of governance, and build understanding and empathy across national and cultural borders.

Members of the public are invited to attend the lecture, which is scheduled to take place at 4.30pm on Sunday 23rd March at the Qatar National Convention Centre.

The talk coincides with the Annual Meeting between QCRI and MIT-CSAIL (the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology), as part of the seven-year strategic research agreement signed in 2012 between QCRI and MIT-CSAIL to collaborate on joint research projects of benefit to Qatar.

The Annual Meeting on 23-24 March in Doha brings QCRI and MIT-CSAIL experts together to discuss their joint research in five key areas: cyber security, speech and language processing, data management for social computing, advanced analytics and visualisation in sports, and data integration.  Sir Tim will participate in the executive overview session on 'data management for social computing'. 

Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989, and his later specifications for URIs, HTTP and HTML have served as the basis for the global spread of Web technology.  Today, he is the 3Com Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering at MIT with a joint appointment at CSAIL.

He was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 greatest minds of the 20th century, and knighted by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for services to the global development of the Internet in 2004.

As a principal constituent of Qatar Foundation Research and Development, QCRI is one of three national research institutes established by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. QCRI is focused on tackling large-scale computing challenges that address national priorities for growth and development. 

For more information on QCRI, please visit www.qcri.qa

About QCRI
Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) is a national research institute established by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a private, non-profit organisation that is supporting Qatar's transformation from a hydrocarbon-based economy to knowledge-based economy.  

As a principal constituent of Qatar Foundation Research and Development, QCRI supports Qatar Foundation's mission to build Qatar's innovation and technology capacity by focusing on large-scale computing challenges that address national priorities for growth and development. 

In doing this, QCRI conducts world-class multidisciplinary computing research that is relevant to the needs of Qatar, the wider Arab region, and the world. It performs cutting-edge research in such areas as Arabic language technologies, social computing, data analytics, and cloud computing. 

The research conducted at QCRI is aligned with the Qatar National Research Strategy and supports the strategic priorities outlined in the Qatar National Vision 2030.  For more information, please visit www.qcri.qa.

About Qatar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D)
Leading Qatar's vision to become an international centre for research and development excellence and innovation, QF R&D is home to Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP), a world-class hub for technology innovation and commercialization, as well as the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), a globally renowned scientific research funding organization, and prominent research institutes operating at the frontiers of science, including Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) and Qatar Energy and Environment Research Institute (QEERI).

For more information, please contact:
Kimberly Mathern 
Qatar Computing Research Institute 
Tel: +(974) 4454 2515
Mob:  +(974) 6645 5177 
Email: kmathern@qf.org.qa

© Press Release 2014