How did HistoryWorld.net start? It began eight years ago when I saw my first CD-Rom and couldn't believe how interesting digital information was. Two years later I'd conceived the concept to release my own, about world history. When the CD-Rom market collapsed, the internet was emerging, and that was the obvious home for it.
What do visitors to the site see? I built it as a database: every paragraph is a separate record. It's an interactive experience of history - there are numerous and fast ways of finding material as you travel through time. We've developed a thing called Ocean - one-click edited access network and I think we're the only site building an index to serious reference material on the net. This is increasingly needed because, on any subject, one gets far too many results from search engines. I indexed all my material in the traditional way from the start, which we're now incorporating with the best of the free online content.
What does being a BT Broadband partner entail? It's a new development that joins sites that would benefit from the spread of broadband. Sites like ours have the content to make the technology exciting. I'm a passionate believer in broadband and want more people to discover its many benefits.
How will broadband revolutionise things? It has revolutionised my working life! I agree with Steve Bowbrick that the future for broadband is about the computer being always online. With our Ocean index you don't even have to go through a search engine. The net is giving everyone an amazing free library at his fingertips. It's only fully useful if people are able to be online all the time.
Is the net a reliable archiving medium? It's no more and no less reliable than a bookshop. It's like the biggest virtual newsagent in the world. In the physical world we know what looks reliable, in terms of layout, and we can separate the broadsheet from the tabloid. It's harder to know the difference on the net, which is why people will need guides to edit the material for them. That said, like any bookshop, there is wonderful stuff and complete rubbish too!
Gadgets? I recently got a Linksys WUSB11 wireless network adapter to link my and my wife's computers so we can use the same files. The wire-free house of the future sounds interesting but I wouldn't want my computer to open the fridge for me - I quite like opening the fridge!
Favourite sites? www.victorianweb.org; www.nga.gov; www.artcyclopedia.com; www.mapquest.co.uk; www.bt.com/directory-enquiries
Visit: www.historyworld.net
