In three months in the fall of 1989, Berners-Lee used the Internet, a discarded defensive weapon of the United States government and its system of sending information over telephone lines, and invented the World Wide Web. Today the World Wide Web exists in every country, reaching tens of millions of homes around the world. People have become friends with other people they will never visit because of it. People conduct business and do shopping without ever leaving their homes. Someday soon elections might be held on it. Every year, it seems, humans find new and better ways to communicate through it. Berners-Lee remains humble today about his achievement, which he gave away to the world. "I pieced it together as I pursued my regular work and personal life," he explains in his book Weaving the Web. "But many other people, most of them unknown, contributed essential ingredients, in much the same almost random fashion. A group of individuals holding a common dream and working together at a distance brought about a great change."