TechnoCultures with Wendy Grossman and Eva Pascoe – Internet Pioneers

Technocultures of the 90ties is a series of 5 Episodes on the explosion of the Net 1994-1998.

Internet Pioneer Eva Pascoe, co-founder of world’s first Cybercafe Cyberia in fireside chat with Wendy Grossman (www.pelicancrossing.net) the author of NetWars, the first book on Internet conflicts published in 1995 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net.wars

The book has highlighted the tensions between digital and analogue world, with law and concepts of property, acceptable behaviour and social values were diverging fast. The video covers the story of CIX conferencing community when Cliff Stanford crowdsourced Demon, UK’s early Internet provider. It also explains how Easynet Internet provider was founded by David Rowe and Keith Teare in 1994, making the access easier and interface less insane for non-tech users. Grahame Davies, Andy Long, Tony Argyrou and others from Easynet Team were the core team to bring Internet to UK households. David Rowe was then invited to National Portrait Gallery exhibition The Men who killed the Distance – a visionary show that caught the moment of the Big Bang Internet explosion. Wendy also highlights the early tech journalists community, Charles Arthur, Tom Standage and then later Carole Cadwalladr who moved the Internet stories from geek pages to front pages.

Wendy and Eva discuss the campaign against unregulated use of facial recognition in towns and highlight risks associated with growing use of this technology. From old wars to new wars, Internet conflicts continue.