Something happened between 1995 and 2000 that changed the way we work, the way we think and the way we live our lives today.
To varying degrees, in this brief, but bright half-decade, we all became focused on a new frontier, led there by a new breed of entrepreneur promising (and threatening) to bring down the old way of doing business, replacing it with a shining citadel of citizen-empowered prosperity, boundary-less opportunity and truly democratic wealth.
Bang smack in the middle of it all was a man called Josh Harris. His web media and TV portal pseudo.com typified the possibilities (and eventually the pitfalls) of a financial system that would self-inflict a three trillion dollar wound on itself over a five year period.
This is What the Internet Looked Like in 1999
Just as Elvis invented Rock n’roll, Harris invented “Always On” – the feverish aspiration to total connectedness, wiring up his huge apartment block / office / on Broadway to the Internet for everyone with a T1 line to enjoy and share in his increasingly bizarre behaviour and that of his 300 staff.
And then the bubble burst. The world woke up and Josh Harris ran to the hills to “launder” his head in obscurity.
In TOTALLY WIRED, author Andrew Smith travels thousands of miles to meet up with Harris, tracking down the “Warhol of the Web” to look him in the eye and ask what went wrong and why?
Have we learned our lessons or are we still willing to believe in the endless possibilities offered by cyberspace?
I’m hosting a breakfast with Andrew Smith as part of Internet Week Europe at the Hospital Club next week. You can book yourself in here.
Books For Breakfast 