Remote conversations for the road: "In this episode Mike Masnick gives us a history of the early internet — starting with what was called the Eternal September, when millions of AOL users flooded the scene, creating a messy, unpredictable, exciting ecosystem of open protocols and terrible UIs." Enjoyed listening to this. I do have a mixed opinion on that protocols-over-platform point of view but there's a ot of stuff in here to wrap head around for a bit. Specifically, that kind of looking back at the early internet, at how things transformed from a per-se decentralized, fragmented environment to a set of services that were actually fun to use and made technology accessible to a whole wider load of human beings before eventually turning into shady, despicable structures one should rather avoid. Specifically, too, that looking back at how a certain group of people nowadays tends to ignore that part of the story and opts to limit things to the negative aspects that came along later. Specifically, too, that ATProto / Bluesky approach of trying to learn from both - decentralization as a crucial aspect for being in power, in control, and usability, accessibility for less tech-savvy people being an undisputable requirement to make technology that serves a particular purpose. Worth checking out. https://www.themaybe.org/podcast/nodestar-the-eternal-september-w-mike-masnick  #podcasts #social_networks #social_technology #mike_masnick #the_maybe