Key Notes from The Virtual Revolution Episode 1

- Africa is now being hooked up to the internet.
- Tim Berners Lee = creator of the interent.
- 20-25% of world are now using the internet.
- There is a question as to whether the interent is a blessing or a curse?
- 2 billion people worldwide are online.
- The Web allows anyone to publish anything.
- 1/4 of the planet uses the web.
- 35 million people a day in the British Isles log on.
- £1 billion a week is spent on the web.
- 5 million people use dating websites every month.
- 18 million people read blogs.
- The internet has been described as 'the great levelling of humanity'.
- 65 million people use Wikipedia each month.
- Wikipedia contains 14 million articles that can be written and edited by anyone with computer access, which undercuts authority.
- The Well was created in 1985 and was the first web community. At the time it was created only a fraction of 1% of the world had even encountered the internet.
- The internet means we can control what people believe as you can control what people have access to.
- The influential Electronic Frontier Foundation campaigns for freedom online.
- Blogs = global conversation.