ZDNet Tech Family Tree Posters

ZDNet presents Tech Family Trees

Technology is all about the new. With billions of pounds depending on new ideas and companies competing to out-innovate each other, it's easy to forget that, in the words of Newton, we are all standing on the shoulders of giants. Knowledge of technology's history is essential to understand its present and our future, but it's something that's easy to leave behind.

So what if you could trace back every idea behind today's technology, describing what happened when in its evolutionary tree, and why it matters? That's the inspiration behind ZDNet's Tech Family Trees.

A Tech Family Tree is many things. It's a glossy full-colour A1 poster with hundreds of facts, beautifully arranged to show exactly how one part of our digital life came into being. It's an interactive timeline on ZDNet, to explore and comment on. And it's alive; as new events occur, they'll be added.

Each one is intensively researched and checked by ZDNet's editorial staff, and designed in-house to reflect what we see as the major forces behind each new technology we cover. They're mini-encyclopedias, instant guides to the facts behind iconic inventions, and we hope you'll find them useful, interesting and entertaining. Want to know more? The ZDNet UK editors explain all in this Tech Family Tree video.