UK: 10.000 nieuwe internetters per dag, aktie BBC

[Dirk van der Woude]

Bruce the spider will tell you all you need to know
about the Web

By Internet Correspondent Chris Nuttall

With more than 10,000 people a day now taking to the
Internet for the first time in the UK, a nationwide
project is being launched to teach the public how to
get the most out of the new medium.

Webwise, organised by BBC Education, involves 5,000
organisations, a special Website and a six-week
campaign of TV and radio programmes, all beginning on
Monday.

Internet use is booming with computer prices plunging
and dozens of companies offering subscription-free
access to the World Wide Web.

A survey carried out by BMRB in March suggested that
10.6 million people in the UK use the Internet. An
NOP survey for December 1998 showed the medium was
attracting 10,900 new adult users in Britain every
day.

Net centres everywhere

Computers are being set up in supermarkets, pubs,
football clubs and other centres around the country
for the public to drop in and learn Internet basics.
They will gain a certificate if they complete a
course on Internet basics, which runs on a CD ROM.

A series of TV and radio programmes will showcase how
the Internet is being put to creative use from
artistic collaborations to athletes racing each other
over the Web.

And the man who invented the World Wide Web 10 years
ago, Britain's Tim Berners Lee, will take part in an
online chat.

 The March 1999 ABC//electronic audit of BBC Online
recorded 80 million page impressions and three
million users. BBC News Online accounted for more
than half of the figures with 41 million page
impressions and 2.3 million users.

BBC News Online has seen a 70% growth in usage in the
first three months of 1999 and bbc.co.uk is now
established as the UK's number one Internet content
provider.