Technology moves fast. Context matters. Independent by design ↗
vnunet.
Explore topics

Find your next rabbit hole.

Explore the collection, or type to search.

ExplainerYahoo closes GeoCities: how the web lost millions of home pagesYahoo bought GeoCities for billions in 1999 and switched it off a decade later. The closure became a turning point for web preservation.ExplainerThe Storm worm: the botnet that started with a weather headlineIn January 2007 an email about deadly storms in Europe spread a Trojan that built one of the largest peer-to-peer botnets of its time.ExplainerGPLv3: how the free software licence was rewrittenAfter 18 months of public drafting, the Free Software Foundation published version 3 of the GNU General Public License in June 2007.ExplainerThe UK identity card scheme: from Act of Parliament to shredded registerBritain legislated for national ID cards backed by a central biometric register, then abolished the whole scheme within five years.ExplainerThe netbook era: small, cheap laptops that briefly drove PC growthThe Asus Eee PC started a boom in low-cost mini laptops that propped up PC sales, until tablets and thinner laptops took their place.

Press Esc to close

Topic

UK government IT

UK government technology projects have often been ambitious, expensive and controversial. These explainers follow the schemes that dominated debate and what eventually happened to them.

Timeline

  1. 2002The NHS National Programme for IT is launched.
  2. 2006The Identity Cards Act becomes law.
  3. 2010The identity card scheme is abolished.

Explainers