Internet History Podcast

Welcome BACK to the Internet History Podcast. After essentially a 5 year hiatus, the Internet History Podcast is back, fully back, a whole slate of episodes coming to you, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have our relaunch episode be with Jimmy Wales. What can I tell you? He’s the founder of Wikipedia. We get deep into the history of all that but also get into how he’s thinking about the web and Wikipedia in this age of AI.Chapters00:00 The Return of the Internet History Podcast00:58 Exploring Trust in the Digital Age04:09 Growing Up with Knowledge11:53 The Journey into Technology and Finance16:58 The First Encounters with the Internet18:38 The Spark of Entrepreneurship20:09 The Birth of Bomis and New Ideas27:13 The Transition from Newpedia to Wikipedia31:57 Navigating Challenges and Building Trust42:25 Moments of Realization and Trust in Wikipedia48:05 From Startup to Nonprofit: A New Direction51:17 Lessons in Nonprofit Fundraising53:02 Transparency and Community Engagement01:00:21 Wikipedia in the Age of AI01:07:29 The Future of the Open Web01:08:58 Defining Purpose in Knowledge Platforms01:12:05 Building Trust in Personal and Political LifeTakeawaysWikipedia's growth was fueled by community engagement and open editing.Trust is essential for the success of any platform.The transition from Newpedia to Wikipedia was a pivotal moment.Transparency in operations fosters community trust.AI's impact on knowledge sharing is significant but manageable.Defining a clear purpose helps in moderating content.Wikipedia's model demonstrates the power of decentralized knowledge.The importance of assuming good faith in online interactions.Nonprofit status allows for a focus on mission over profit.Building trust in personal and political life is crucial for society. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People know that a16z changed tech by turning VCs and founders into rock stars. You know the names. But there’s one name you might not know, that real heads, deep inside the industry have known very well over the years. The legend, Margit Vennmachers. You know all those a16z names because of Margit, because of how she helped Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and others build a16z into the most prominent VC firm in the world. This is a conversation with Margit about her entire career, her philosophy on coms and marketing and PR, and how a16z evolved. From the story behind Software Is Eating The World to how startups can build and burnish their own legend, from the woman who, behind the scenes, those in the know knew was making it happen.Chapters00:00 Intros02:13 From Farm Life to Tech Dreams03:56 Navigating Grief and Independence09:38 Cultural Shifts: From Germany to Silicon Valley12:25 The Early Days of Silicon Valley21:05 Launching Outcast Communications25:15 Building Credibility in the Startup World27:31 The Rise of Facebook and Industry Cycles29:43 Navigating Economic Cycles and Client Relationships30:53 The Decision to Sell Outkast32:43 Founding A16Z: The Backstory36:48 Marketing Strategies for A16Z42:00 The Evolution of Tech Leadership43:53 The Role of an Operating Partner46:39 Crisis Management in Tech51:42 The Concept of 'Software is Eating the World'55:41 Lessons from Two Decades with Mark and Ben56:49 The Future of Tech and AI58:06 Margit's Transition to Partner EmeritusTakeaways:Margit's upbringing on a small farm shaped her resilience.Grief can lead to early maturity and self-reliance.Her first tech job sparked a curiosity about the industry.Cultural differences in Silicon Valley were eye-opening.Founding Outcast Communications was driven by inspiration, not frustration.Crisis management is crucial in maintaining a company's reputation.PR for startups requires a focus on storytelling and relationships.The dot-com bubble taught valuable lessons about sustainability.A16Z's approach to venture capital emphasizes personality and visibility.The future of tech is intertwined with the responsible use of AI. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fred Wilson, a prominent venture capitalist and co-founder of Union Square Ventures, shares his insights from decades in the tech world. He highlights the four concurrent technological revolutions: AI, synthetic biology, energy transition, and crypto. Fred discusses his early investments in companies like GeoCities and Etsy, the lessons learned from the dot-com crash, and the evolution of New York's tech scene. He also reflects on the importance of passionate user communities and why he believes New York remains a hub for innovative startups.

Serial entrepreneur Shirish Nadkarni came to the U.S. as a teenager with $25 in his pocket. After graduating from Harvard Business School, he worked at Microsoft where he engineered the $400 million acquisition of Hotmail and launched MSN.com, the world’s leading web portal.Striking out on his own in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom, he founded TeamOn Systems, an early pioneer of mobile email that was later acquired by BlackBerry before becoming BlackBerry Internet Email servicing over 50 million users at its peak.His great new book is: From Startup to Exit: An Insider's Guide to Launching and Scaling Your Tech Business Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joshua Schachter, founder of del.icio.us, is someone I’ve wanted to talk to from the very first day of this podcast. As we’ll discuss, del.icio.us was such a standard bearer of the web 2.0 era. Of user generated content. Of sharing long before Facebook or Twitter or any of that. If my email chain is to be believed, this episode has been four years in the making, and I’m glad Josh and I found the time to do this episode and bring the podcast back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Angelika Fuellemann is a designer who worked early on with BookSense.com, then got hired by Audible early on, so this is the early story of Audible. It’s funny… audio, streaming music, podcasts, audiobooks, it seems so obvious now, but it really is funny to look back and think about how off the wall this seamed before the smartphone. You mean books on tape will be a thing?  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Josh Marshall is one of the key people who brought blogging into the realm of serious, award winning and respectable journalism. The story of his blog/publication, Talking Points Memo, or TPM is the story of blogging becoming legit and serious, but also the story of modern media over the last 20 years of digital disruption. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is technology really rotting our brains, destroying our society... or is that what everyone has always worried about with every technological advance, going back to tv, or telephones, or even writing letters? The new book, Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stupid: Changing Feelings about Technology, from the Telegraph to Twitter tries to look at this question from a historical perspective. Is it really different this time? But more importantly... to what degree has technological change impacted how we think of things, and vice-versa.My thanks to the authors, Luke Fernandez and Susan J. Matt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well, as we say in this episode, he’ll always be known as the inventor of the hashtag, but Chris Messina has been central to so many things in tech over the last 20 years or so. Helped Mozilla launch Firefox. Founded BarCamp where so much Web 2.0 goodness happened and was launched. Cofounded the first co-working space in San Francisco. Helped Google try to grok social with Google+. Oh, and that hashtag business. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I’ve said before I wish I could cover technology history beyond just North America, more… Well, Charles Miller has started a great podcast in Britain called Tech Business History. Charles used to report on the tech business as a BBC documentary producer. In the first series of his podcast, he’s exploring the dot com boom in the UK with some of the people he met when he was filming for the BBC back in 1999. It’s a fantastic show that I’ve fallen in love with, so what I want to do is play you an episode from his show that was amazing. It’s exactly the sort of interview I wish I had gotten for this show: In the episode we’re going to hear, he talks to Darryl Mattocks, the founder of a very early dot com called The Internet Bookshop. Yes, they were selling books on the internet before Jeff Bezos did. But I’ll let Charles introduce his guest – in this episode of TBH – Tech Business History. And if you like it, do catch up with the other episodes on iTunes or from your podcast providerThe Tech Business History Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.