Jon and Scoop take a nostalgic trip to the early days of the computer and online communication. We discuss our first computers and their impact on our lives, our early online experiences, and programs and services that change the way we work and play.

We're inspired by our recent conversations with Kevin Driscoll, author of The Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media:

* Kevin Driscoll: The Modem World

* Kevin Driscoll: Modem World Convergence

Jon and Scoop were both pioneers of various aspects of computer communication and the Internet, including online communities, Internet media, digital convergence, and digital cultures. But they both started with little knowledge of technology, and started learning on and off the job.

Jon: I don't know if it was the first one, but kind of the most popular early browser was Mosaic, and you could get Mosaic and put it on your computer - assuming that you had a decent screen, you could see pretty good visual imagery. It was kind of limited.

Scoop: Yeah, those were the early days. Just waiting for stuff to display was - you could go and get a beer, make a sandwich and come back, and it's still trying to render. The product that really changed my life... remember RealAudio? From RealNetworks. That was when I first was able to do radio on the Internet, in a really klunky sort of way.