Papers and digital files relating to early use and development of the World Wide Web by business

Compiled by Glyn Moody, the archive comprises 25 box files covering early development of the Internet, with particular focus on the impact of online developments on businesses, and 29 electronic Word 2 files containing an edited selection of 20,000–30,000 news items.

The printed material was predominantly compiled to support Glyn Moody's research for his publications and for weekly columns he wrote for the Computer Weekly digital magazine between 1994 and 2000. It concentrates on developments in early Internet history, and includes screenshots of long-removed sites that were never included in the Wayback Machine; printouts of early online manuals to guide Internet users; Usenet postings and directory listings of key servers and gopher sites (Demon's FTP server, for example); printouts of online newsletters and of email conversations with hundreds of the UK's earliest Internet users; a list of every company in the world that provided World Wide Web hosting at that time; original copies of press releases, including announcement of the formation of the London Internet Neutral eXchange (LINX) in September 1994, announcement of Web-in-a-Box Internet solutions from Microsoft, DEC and EMWAC in November 1994, News International's Delphi online service announcing a move to "Internet standards", and an announcement concerning Apple's eWorld online service, which did not adopt Internet standards. There are also numerous printouts of online press releases, including one from Netscape's Navigator launch in October 1994.

The electronic Word 2 files comprise edited digital materials from early sources on the web, including newsgroups, mailing lists and early web pages. They cover everything from press releases on Internet strategy for companies, announcements of new additions to the web (The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), for example), the launch of new standards for the web, search mechanisms in an era of CompuServe, AOL, MSN and Lycos, and an announcement on the redesign of webpages by the NHM.