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What has the Internet ever done for us?

A University of Salford exhibition at the Manchester Science Festival will follow in the footsteps of Monty Python by asking: "What has the Internet ever done for us?"

The Internet is celebrating its 40th birthday this year and in that relatively short time it has gone from an obscure network used by a handful of researchers to the power behind a world wide web connecting over 1.5 billion people.

The Family Telecommunications Exhibition is showing this weekend and features a collection of artefacts and demonstrations including the Morse telegraph, telephones, mobile phones, home computers, the Internet and much more.

It aims to find out how the Internet has truly changed people's lives, providing an opportunity for visitors to say how they first became connected to the web and how it has transformed their lives (for the better or worse).

Professor Nigel Linge said: "The exhibition traces the history of technology from the early days of semaphore signals to the emergence of home computers, the Internet and today's high tech mobile phones.

"The creation of the Internet is a fantastic story of engineering achievement but it is the social impact that is truly fascinating."

The exhibition is free and runs from 10.00am to 4.00pm o­n Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October 2009. For more information see: www.engagingwithcommunications.com