The Queen will attend a Reception in the Blue Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace on Thursday, 12th February, to mark the re-launch of this, the British Monarchy Website.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee OM, KBE, inventor of the World Wide Web, will travel from the US for the launch. Guests for the Reception will include the Minister for Digital Engagement, Mr Tom Watson MP, and a cross-section of people from the web-based community. This will be the third version of the Royal website which was first launched in 1997 before being revamped in 2001.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee will say a few words about the history of the World Wide Web and then introduce a short film featuring students at Kingsbury High School where The Queen launched the first version of the Monarchy website in 1997. Sir Tim will then invite The Queen to re-launch the British Monarchy Website. The Queen will also unveil a “surprise” feature on the new website. The updated site will showcase the latest new media features as well as rarely seen video and documents from the Royal Archives.
The new website has a more user-friendly and accessible design and utilises a number of new technological features, such as Google maps integration with the Royal Diary of Engagements, integration with the Royal Channel on YouTube, a password protected Media Centre, a new Personnel module to allow job applicants to apply online, and a new search function. The site will make greater use of video and has a new Content Management System (CMS) making it easier to update.
The Royal website also features a wealth of new content including expanded information on the Commonwealth Realms and a new section on Royal animals.
The site will also feature an updated version of The Duke of York’s business microsite, www.thedukeofyork.org, to support his role as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment.
Notes to Editors:
1. The new websites have been developed by Bang Communications Ltd, in conjunction with the Buckingham Palace web team.
2. The British Monarchy Website is visited by approximately 250,000 users from around the world each week.
NEW ARCHIVE AUDIO AND VIDEO FOOTAGE:
New audio and video footage has been supplied for the website by the BBC and the British Film Institute. These can be found in the Images and Broadcasts Section on the Homepage. This includes:
Children's Hour broadcast, 1940 (AUDIO)
The original recording of The Queen’s first public speech (as Princess Elizabeth) on 13th October, 1940, with a radio address to the children of the Commonwealth, many of them living away from home due to the War.
Princess Elizabeth’s 21st Birthday Broadcast (AUDIO)
Original recording of The Queen’s speech (made as Princess Elizabeth) on her twenty-first birthday, 21st April 1947. In this speech broadcast on the radio from Cape Town, the Princess dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth.
The Duke of Edinburgh in a cinema advertisement for the Playing Fields Association, 1951 (VIDEO)
His Royal Highness makes a guest appearance as ‘the boss’ in this short film in which group of children, who are discouraged from playing cricket in the streets and the local park, write a letter to The Duke asking him to help them find somewhere to play. This is used to illustrate the ‘Charities and patronages’ section of the website.
Wedding Cake for The Duke of York’s Bride, 1923 (VIDEO)
Members of the public queue on the streets for a glimpse of the Royal wedding cake ahead of The Duke of York’s wedding to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (later Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) in 1923.
RARELY SEEN DOCUMENTS FROM THE ROYAL ARCHIVES:
The Royal Archives have supplied a number of scans of historic documents relating to the Royal Family. These will be made available to view online for the first time. These can also be found in the Images and Broadcasts section on the Homepage. These include:
Letter from King George V to returned prisoners of war
Dating from 1918, a lithograph copy of this handwritten message from the King was sent to every British and Commonwealth prisoner of war who returned from captivity after the First World War.
Copy of a letter from King George VI to Winston Churchill
Dated 2 June 1944, His Majesty appeals to the British Prime Minister not to participate in ‘Operation Overlord’ (the D-Day landings) in person, but to remain safely at home for the good of his country.
Queen Victoria’s introduction to the telephone
Extract from Queen Victoria’s Journal from 14th January 1878 in which she describes meeting Alexander Graham Bell and trying out his new invention, the telephone.
TECHNOLOGY AND THE ROYAL FAMILY
1878 – Queen Victoria meets Alexander Graham Bell and tries out his new invention, the telephone.
1918 – the first ever mass communication from a reigning British Monarch is sent out when a letter from George V is reproduced and distributed to all returning prisoners of war using lithography. ‘The Queen joins me in welcoming you on your release from the miseries and hardships, which you have endured with so much patience and courage.’
1932 – King George V makes his first Christmas Broadcast via radio: ‘I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all; to men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert, or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them.’
1937 - The Coronation procession of George VI becomes the first televised outside broadcast
1940 – The Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) makes her first ever radio broadcast accompanied by Princess Margaret on Children’s Hour on the BBC: ‘In wishing you all 'good evening' I feel that I am speaking to friends and companions who have shared with my sister and myself many a happy Children's Hour’.
1953 – The Queen allows television cameras inside Westminster Abbey for the first time during a State occasion for her Coronation. An extra half a million TV sets are sold in the weeks running up to the event
1957 – The first live Christmas Broadcast on television. During her speech, Her Majesty mentions the benefits of new technology: ‘That it is possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us … television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes’
1958 – The Queen makes the first phone trunk call from Bristol to Edinburgh.
1976 – The Queen becomes the first Monarch to send an email during a visit to an army base
1997 – The Queen launches www.royal.gov.uk during a visit to Kingsbury High School in Brent
2002 - 3,521 journalists from over 60 countries are accredited via an Internet-based virtual press office to cover events to mark The Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
2006 – The Christmas Broadcast, or ‘Queen’s speech’ is podcast for the first time
2007 – The Queen launches the first Royal Channel on YouTube
2008 – The Queen uploads a video to YouTube during a visit to the ‘Google’ offices in London.
SIR TIM BERNERS-LEE OM, KBE
A graduate of Oxford University, England, Tim Berners-Lee is the 3COM Founders Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering, with a joint appointment in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he also heads the Decentralized Information Group (DIG). He is co-Director of the new Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) and is a Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Southampton, UK. He directs the World Wide Web Consortium, founded in 1994.
In 1989 he invented the World Wide Web, an internet-based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing while at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory. He wrote the first web client and server in 1990. His specifications of URIs, HTTP and HTML were refined as Web technology spread.
In 2001 he became a fellow of the Royal Society. He has been the recipient of several international awards including the Japan Prize, the Prince of Asturias Foundation Prize, the Millennium Technology Prize and Germany's Die Quadriga award.
In 2004 he was knighted by The Queen and in 2007 he was awarded the Order of Merit. He is the author of "Weaving the Web".
