Nodestar: The Eternal September w/ Mike Masnick

How did the internet become three companies in a trenchcoat? It wasn’t always that way! It used to be fun, and weird, and full of opportunity. To set the scene for the series, we spoke to a stalwart advocate of decentratilsation, Mike Masnick.More like this: Big Tech’s Bogus Vision for the Future w/ Paris MarxThis is part one of Nodestar, a three-part series on decentralisation: how the internet started as a wild west of decentralised exploration, got centralised into the hands of a small number of companies, and how the pendulum has begun it’s swing in the other direction.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.Further reading & resources:Protocols, Not Platforms by Mike MasnickList of apps being built on AT ProtocolGraze — a service to help you make custom feed with ads on AT protoOtherwise Objectionable — an eight part podcast series on the history of section 230Techdirt podcastCTRL-ALT-SPEECH podast**Subscribe to our newsletter to get more stuff than just a podcast — we run events and do other work that you will definitely be interested in!**