University of Southampton
Academics working at the university include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Wendy Hall, inventor of Microcosm (hypermedia system) a predecessor of the World Wide Web, founding director of the Web Science Trust between the University of Southampton and MIT, José Antonio Bowen, President of Goucher College and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Erich Zepler, who made leading contributions to radio receiver development, David Payne, who invented EDFA for use in fibre optics cables, Sir Barry Cunliffe, a pioneer of modern British archaeology, Ray Monk, the biographer of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Albie Sachs, former Judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and Tim Holt, former President of the Royal Statistical Society and Office for National Statistics.
World Online
Founded by Dutch entrepreneur Nina Brink, World Online's name indicated its aspiration to rival the hugely successful American ISP, AOL (America On-Line). The company aimed to provide free internet access across Europe. It launched its full internet service in the Netherlands in 1996, and grew rapidly to have a presence in 15 European countries and South Africa; counting some 1.9 million customers by the year 2000.