Internet History Podcast

Summary:In the early 1990s, Brad Silverberg was one of the key champions of the Internet within Microsoft. As the first ever Senior Vice President of the Internet Platform and Tools Group, he essentially led Microsoft’s efforts to embrace the Internet and the Web beginning in late 1995. As the senior Vice President of the Personal-Systems Division, Brad also led the development of Windows, from the launch of Windows 3.0 through Windows 95, which he helped establish as Microsoft’s greatest ever product. Today, he is a venture capitalist with both Fuel Capital and Ignition Partners. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:One of the big trends of recent years in the tech space has been the rise of delivery startups like Instacart and Postmates and the like. In a way, this is a resurrection of an idea, if you remember famous 90s startups like WebVan, Peapod and Kozmo.com. So, I thought it would be interesting to speak with someone who founded a delivery startup back in the 90s. Tim DeMello was the founder of Streamline, a delivery startup which actually predated the dot-com era. We talk to Tim about the economics of home delivery businesses and find out what he thinks the prospects are for the current crop of delivery companies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Martin Nisenholtz is a digital media pioneer. He founded perhaps the first digital marketing group at Olgilvy and Mather all the way back in 1983. But from 1995 through 2012, he was first the President of New York Times Electronic Media and then CEO of New York Times Digital and then Senior Vice President of Digital Operations at the New York Times Company. Martin, is literally the guy who has been front and center in everything the Times has been doing in digital for the last 20 years. He headed the team the launched the first NYTimes.com website back in 1995, and he has helped steer all of their web and digital efforts all the way through to the present social and mobile era.A screenshot of @Times on AOL here.A screenshot of an early NYTimes.com homepage here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen:Evan Kirstel is a 20 year veteran of the wireless, broadband, cloud and social space. He is also absolutely the number one person to follow on Twitter if you like a daily dose of amazing articles and blog posts. Evan helps me frame just that: how the modern wireless industry developed, the various issues involved in the evolution of broadband, and where it all might be going. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:Chris Higgins is back! In this very fun episode we talk about Windows 95, command line computing, who is the Microsoft of tech today and how the Matrix is the perfect hacker/Internet movie.Listen, we promised a bunch of things would be in the show notes, but sadly, we didn’t write them down. This is what I could remember. If there are others I forgot some, send them to me via email or a tweet.The Windows 95 video with Chandler and Rachel from Friends.How I Won the Lottery.DR-DOS.The Incomparable Podcast episode where they debate the canonical tech books.The "small" Nokia phone Brian loved.The "Morpheus" Nokia phone from the Matrix.The Steven King-directed movie about killer cars. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:Terry Jones was the founder and CEO of Travelocity. Perhaps the primary pioneer in the online travel space, Terry explains the unique challenges Travelocity faced when dealing with the airline industry, fending off competition from the likes of Microsoft (Expedia) along with giving us a pretty fascinating look at how the modern travel industry works. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Discover the rise of eBay from its humble beginnings as AuctionWeb. The show's hosts delve into how the Beanie Baby craze fueled its growth and shaped the online auction landscape. They discuss Meg Whitman's pivotal leadership role and how her branding expertise influenced eBay's success. The transformative impact of eBay's 1998 IPO and the wealth it created for early employees is highlighted, alongside challenges like service outages and fraud. And don’t miss the emergence of PayPal, a game-changer in online transactions!

Summary:Bruce Spector is another early web entrepreneur whose company would be acquired during the dotcom era. In this case, the company was WebCal and the acquirer was Yahoo. Bruce later went on to spearhead Yahoo's acquisitions during the late 90s, including two of the largest, Broadcast.com and Geocities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:There was a time, early on in the web era, where things were very much wide open. An entrepreneur could survey the scene and say, "No one has done a great sports site yet. Why don't I build one?"Mike Levy did just that, taking on deep-pocketed incumbents like ESPN to build Sportsline (eventually, CBS Sportsline) into a lasting and powerful brand. Mike recounts Sportsline's initial incarnation as a dialup service, its partnerships early on with major sports celebrities, as well as being present for the foundations of the modern fantasy sports industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Summary:Glenn Fleishman is back to talk more about Amazon's founding mythologies, the recent controversies surrounding Amazon's work culture, and the effect the web revolution has had on publishing and journalism, but from the point of view of a writer.The New York Times article we discuss extensively can be found here.The David Halberstam book on the rise of modern media can be found here.And the book that Glenn recommends can be found here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.