What's Going on in the Information Environment?

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Boltenboard systems became widely available in the mid tolate eighties. It provoked talk about something that wasn't really talked about yet. The debate carried on for many years to come, and is constantly being renewed as we change the terms of our engagement with the information environment. In this period of openness, many of the people involved are pretty interested in commercial exploitation of computing - but the terms on which it will happen are not certain.

Paris Marx is joined by Kevin Driscoll to discuss the networks and services built by volunteers and hobbyists on top of the telephone network before the internet took over the in the 1990s, and what it can teach us about the internet and social media today.

Kevin Driscoll is the author of The Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media and an associate professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. Follow Kevin on Twitter at @kevindriscoll.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

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