Introducing the Internet Hall of Fame
Over the last 20 years, technology has phenomenally changed the world as we know it. I fondly recall using encyclopaedias, dictionaries, thesauruses, mainframes and large, heavy 2G mobile phones. It never fails to astound me that today, we have all the knowledge, information and communication we require at our fingertips, wherever we are in the world. But while we all enjoy this technology, we often forget about the people that first developed these innovations. So I was delighted to see the recent launch of the Internet Hall of Fame.
The Internet Hall of Fame celebrates the people who brought us the Internet, and spent or continue to spend their lives advancing it. Among the pioneers, global connectors and innovators included in the Internet Hall of Fame, I was pleased to see that some of them were from the UK. These included Donald Davies, a Welsh computer scientist and an inventor of packet switching computer networking which now enables us to send data through networks with low latency; British scientist, Peter Kirstein, a key figure in moving forward Internet advancements in Europe; and of course, Tim Berners-Lee. These are just a few of the people that have revolutionised the way we communicate with each other– all from a single vision of an interconnected world.
At Virgin Media Business we’ve been thinking about other individuals and businesses all over the UK that are doing great things with technology but don’t always receive the recognition they deserve. That’s why we have launched the Innovation Nation awards, to celebrate all the individuals and businesses that strive for technological innovation. We hope some of the entries inspire you as well, you can view the shortlist here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/innovation-nation-awards/innovation-nation-awards-shortlists.
