Reimagining the Internet

Latest Episodes:

42 A Reimagining Carol Dec 22, 2021

Show notes

We celebrate our 50th episode with a holiday special, where Ethan is visited by the Reimagining the Internet producers of past, present, and future to remember some of our favorite interviews from 2021. Tune in for highlights with Omar Wasow, Fred Turner, Heather Ford, Michael Wood Lewis, Lola Hunt and Eliza Sorensen, Damon Krukowski, Elizabeth Hansen-Shapiro, and Tracy Chou.

Rerun — Jimmy Wales, Wikimedia Foundation Dec 17, 2021

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Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales joins us for a thrilling chat about what we can learn from social media and what’s anti-social about a lot of social media today. Jimmy has recently launched the the social network WT.Social, designed to as a non-addictive, thoughtful online space, and has lots of thoughts about the type of communities that we might be able to start cultivating online.

41 Wikipedia, The Last Bastion of Truth Online with Heather Ford Dec 15, 2021

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talk about the thousands of volunteers building it together? Heather Ford, an ethnographer of Wikipedia, joins us to talk about the power struggles and community governance that makes the site one of the most trusted information sources on the web.

40 The Real Silicon Valley, with Fred Turner Dec 01, 2021

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How did hippies living on communes help create the Internet? Is Mark Zuckerberg today's PT Barnum? What can we learn from 17th Century Protestantism about inequality in Silicon Valley? Fred Turner, perhaps the definitive historian of the Internet and counterculture, joins us for a thrilling conversation about how we need to shake post-WWII politics to make not just a better Internet, but a better world. For links to projects mentioned and a full transcript of this episode, please visit https://publicinfrastructure.org/podcast/47-fred-turner Key takeaways: 1. Communes were insular, and so was the first Internet community created by back-to-land hippies. 2. Silicon Valley's cult of personality follows from Protestants' belief that wealth is a sign of godliness. 3. "Seeing Silicon Valley" documents the inequality that fuels tech with portraits of the rich and poor. 4. We need to reckon with issues of class that started during the Vietnam War. 5. Institutions that bring people to come together despite identity and ideology differences are crucial.

Rerun — Amy Zhang, University of Washington Nov 19, 2021

Show notes

Amy Zhang from the Social Futures Lab at University of Washington joins the podcast to talk about the a next version of the internet where groups of users are empowered to govern themselves and help each other to deal online harassment. Amy tells us how she’s pushing HCI and Social Computing scholarship in exciting new directions, to ask what sorts of new practices might make up a post-mega-platform internet.

39 Tracy Chou Wants to Help You Avoid Trolls Nov 17, 2021

Show notes

While some big social media companies are working to use AI to combat harassment, Tracy Chou has a simpler solution — put users in control of what and who they see on their feeds. In this week's episode, Tracy tells us about he app Block Party, a clever and radical set of tools to protect users from trolling and abuse.

38 The Spotify Problem, with Damon Krukowski Nov 11, 2021

Show notes

Did Spotify save the music industry or simply find a way for itself to profit from a power vacuum opened up by piracy? This week, we're thrilled to welcome drummer and writer Damon Krukowski to talk to us about how Spotify became dominant and how musicians are fighting it to win a music industry that supports their livelihoods.

Rerun — Talia Stroud, Civic Signals Nov 06, 2021

Show notes

Talia Stroud from the University of Texas joins us to talk about her project Civic Signals, a project reimagining the Internet as a public space. She walks us through what’s wrong with the type of speech currently rewarded by Facebook and Twitter, and what it might look like to promote civic speech instead. Recorded August, 2020. Visit our episode web page for links to Civic Signals' website and newsletter, and Eli Pariser's TED Talk.

37 Maciej Ceglowski Wants a Smaller Internet for a Better World Nov 04, 2021

Show notes

Maciej Ceglowski is not just the founder of one of the indie web's success stories — the modest yet long-running subscription bookmarking service Pinboard — but a prolific commentator on the world the Internet is helping to create. This week, we're thrilled to chat with Maciej about reimagining not just the Internet, but the stakes that the people using the Internet are responding to.

36 Are.na’s Visual Utopia with Charles Broskoski and Daniel Pianetti Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

Are.na might be the most exciting social network for designers, artists, and curious, interdisciplinary self-educators, kind of like Pinterest or Tumblr but offering the functionality to spin a vast web of images and knowledge. The platform is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, so we invited two of Are.na's co-founders to talk to us about the close-knit (and often paying) community that makes the site vibrant and how the platform's systems of Blocks and Channels makes it an ideal tool for connecting ideas and creating trains of thought.

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