Know Your Net

Let's travel back in time to the birth of the internet when J.C.R. Licklider proposed the idea of networked computers. How profound was that idea? What were computers like during that time? How did we program them?Transcripts can be found here.

We take the interface of a computer for granted today. We see windows. We click on things with a mouse, we type with a keyboard. These things didn't appear out of thin air. They were invented.Transcript can be found here.

What's going on inside your computer? How does it work? Where are my files?Is real life hacking similar to what you see in movies?Transcripts can be found here.

What is a hacker? If your only source of information is pop culture, you might think all hackers are criminals, but that's not the case. In this episode, we go back to the original hackers at MIT at the Tech Model Railroad Club. We look at hacker ethics in regards to open source and free software. We also look at some common exploits.Transcripts can be found here.

What comes to mind when you think of online communities? Today, social media connects the world but... do we really live in a global village? What did online communities look like before the internet? I can only speak about what I know, so this is my story of bulletin boards and the underground ANSI art scene.Transcripts can be found here.

How do we communicate using the internet? What apps do you rely on? This episode takes a historical look at some of the communication platforms developed for the internet.Transcripts can be found here.

The internet has made copying digital goods ridiculously easy. How do we deal with copyright in a read/write culture? In this episode we talk about the rise of Napster, P2P networks, free culture, and creative commons.Transcripts can be found here.

The World Wide Web didn't exist at the beginning of the internet. It started as a proof of concept and then it started to evolve. Tech writers have categorized eras of the web into versions. This explores each version.Transcripts can be found here.

Are social networks a new invention brought about by the internet? Hardly. In this episode, we look at social networks before the internet and then move onto social networks before Facebook came along.Transcripts can be found here.

When the internet took off, it really took off. Speculation was rampant and it created the Dot Com Bubble. What was it like during the bubble? This episode explores the early commercial internet leading up to the crash.Transcripts can be found here.

When the bubble popped, an industry had to figure out how to make a buck. This episode explores the survivors of the post-bubble internet landscape.Transcripts can be found here.

A lot of attention is paid to the economic side of the internet, but what about the artists that use the internet as their medium? This episode takes a look at a few pioneers of net art and their creative innovations.Transcripts can be found here.