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Somewhat unrelated, but I've been listening to older episodes of the Internet History Podcast for the last few weeks. It's quite good! My favorite episode so fa
by lpolovets 9y ago
Somewhat unrelated, but I've been listening to older episodes of the Internet History Podcast for the last few weeks. It's quite good! My favorite episode so far is the one about Bill von Meister, who started the company that formed the basis for AOL: http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2014/04/chapter-3-supplemental-1-the-forgotten-online-pioneer-bill-von-meister/ http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/2014/04/chapter-3-supp.... Von Meister was a very clever entrepreneur, and the podcast talked about some of his pre-AOL ideas, like offering free long distance calls at restaurants (in modern parlance, the free calls were basically the acquisition cost of getting a restaurant diner). Both that specific episode and the entire podcast series in general are a fun listen -- especially if you're in your 30s like I am.
- heymijo 9y agoEarly 30's as well. After picking and choosing random episodes I went back to the beginning to listen chronologically. Agree wholeheartedly about von Meister. Something I've been thinking about lately stems from Chapter 2 about Microsoft and the Internet: http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/podcasts-by-chapter/ http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/podcasts-by-chapter/ It's the distinction between terms like "Information Superhighway", which was to be TV enabled Internet controlled by the telecoms and the World Wide Web, which is the browser-based world that Netscape brought us controlled by no company. I didn't have this historical perspective before the podcast. Now I'm wondering, With the FCC's moves to eliminate title II net neutrality, what will the future Internet look like? If the Internet is a pendulum with "Information Superhighway" on one end and "World Wide Web" on the other, my gut feel is that removing net neutrality will swing things in the direction of the "Information Superhighway" where big co's have more power over what the Internet is.
- scurvy 9y agoThis wasn't the case. Maybe in his head it was, but Information Superhighway and Internet were synonyms for the same thing. I lived through this period and most used them interchangeably. Multimedia was a big thing during this time, so people were excited about the tech advances in media, but Information Super highway was never used to describe web TV. There was also Internet versus internet. Today, we call one of these a LAN. Time to queue up the old AT&T commercials? It's amazing how much they went from a position of dominance to...today.
- bebopfunk 9y agoThank you for the recommendation. I've been looking for some good technical podcasts. Would there be any others that you would recommend?