Depeche Modem w/ Kevin Driscoll on early net culture (NM44)

NM speaks with Kevin Driscoll, author of The Modem World: A
Pre-history of Social Media (Yale Univ. Press, 2022), which
examines the physical — and social — technology that underpinned
the DIY side of networked technology’s evolution in the ‘80s and
‘90s. Parallel to institutional network culture were the
proto-dark-forest communities of BBS networks and other pre-www
systems. From FidoNet to De Digitale Stad (DDS) Netherlands, Kevin
maps out this early territory, with a brief history of the French
Minitel system along the way. Through his work, Kevin asks us to
consider what it really means to be “autonomous” online and what
alternate conceptions of “the internet” might be possible when we
consider the broader origin story of the digital social sphere.
(Subscriber release: 23 May 2022) For More:
https://kevindriscoll.info/ https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/minitel
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300248142/modem-world/