Today we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary of the BBC going online. In April 1994 a new series aired on BBC Two called The Net, looking at all things digital. Accompanying the series was the BBC’s first bulletin board along with the creation of the Networking Club to provide members with an ISP and an e-mail address. From these few pages our web presence grew, and eventually BBC Online (using the bbc.co.uk address) was established three years later in 1997.
To mark this anniversary, we’re holding a couple of panel sessions in the Radio Theatre at New Broadcasting House to discuss the early years of the BBC on the web and to look forward to what the internet could become in the near future. Those taking part include digital entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox and Mike Smartt, the first editor of BBC News Online. We’ll bring you some of the highlights of those sessions on these pages next week.
The BBCi Studio was an early digital initiative based in Bush House on the Strand
Coming soon will also be an iWonder timeline which explains some of the significant moments in those 20 years, with contributions from current and former staff. You can see a clip from one of those interviews on the History of the BBC site alongside an article from academic Lucy Hooberman who is carrying out a research project into the history of the BBC’s online presence.
Jonathan Murphy is Editorial Development Executive, COO Group, BBC Future Media
