Ever ask yourself questions about the birth of RSS, XML, online advertising, O’Rielly Publishing, Archive.org, or even the internet in general? Well, I just recently discovered NerdTV, an IPTV show (meaning… internet only TV show) done by tech writer Robert X Cringley (the same guy who has done numerous other PBS technology specials. Go Netflix Triumph of the Nerds). In each episode of NerdTV, Cringley brings you a 1 hour, unedited interview with the innovators, the movers, and the shakers in the computer industry over the last 20 years.

I can’t say it is for everyone because if you are not familiar with those terms mentioned above and you aren’t particularly interested in learning, NerdTV might not be for you. However, if the stories telling the birth of computing and the technologies that rule our lives today interest you, then odds are you will find these interviews wildly fascinating.

So far, Cringley has brought the following interviews:

  • Dan Drake - Autodesk Co-founder
  • Dave Winer - Father of RSS and Web Logging
  • Tim O’Reilly - Open Source Publishing Pioneer
  • Brewster Kahle - Internet Archive Founder
  • Bill Joy - Sun Microsystems Co-founder
  • Max Levchin - Co-founder of PayPal
  • Andy Hertzfeld - The first Macintosh programmer…ever

Even if you are merely interested in the business side of technology (not necessarily the technology behind the businesses), the interview with 29 year old Levchin (who is now worth ~$500 Million) was very compelling. Take him back 35 years to the days when the PC was born, and it would be him running Microsoft today, not Bill Gates. He’s that imaginative, that business savvy, and that determined. As Gates has shown, an engineer with business skills, and a drive to succeed at everything he tries can be a lethal combination. Here is a (not so) brief excerpt on selecting the “Next Big Thing” in technology to demonstrate the value in listening to this guy.

Now, so how do you select a new wave? What do you look for?

Max Levchin: I think the thing you do is you sort of try to keep track of what’s going on. And you try to learn about or take in the trends that are going on. So I think to take the metaphor further, there are tremors in the ocean floor that are trends of things. Like people watch less TV and use more computers. And people have digital cameras now that cost them nothing because they come with their phones. And these are not really waves, they’re just sort of truths about bandwidth being cheaper, etc. And they shake the ocean floor and a wave starts.

And then a wave turns out to be something like everyone needs to share images, cause they’re making so much more of them. And everyone needs to do something more than just stare into their computer for Excel and Word, because they’re really staring a lot. And everyone needs a better search engine, because they have more time and more bandwidth to spend through their computers. So you sometimes watch those waves emerge and you go, oh, man, that’s a big one. As you watch, some company synthesized those trends into a wave, and sometimes, if you’re smart and lucky, you say oh, this is - the shaking is going on. I think there’ll be a wave over there.

And you get your surfboard out and you paddle, and probably most of the time you realize that you’re going exactly the opposite way from wherever you want to be, and you lick your wounds and you go back to the ocean floor watching. But on occasion if you’re persistent enough you probably find yourself on top of a wave, or at least somewhere on the crest, and you try to stand on the board. I’ve beaten the surfing metaphor to death, but I like it.

It very well could be the interviews Cringley has chosen thus far, but the more of these stories you listen to, the more common themes develop, and the more you notice personality trends throughout these industry leaders. You can of course pick out the obvious in that they are all nerds, but look a bit deeper and you’ll see a strange mix of wild imagination, and both competitiveness and generosity. Don’t be shocked… this is the same trait you see throughout the history of the computer industry. Remember, the computer was born in 1970s by the social outcasts who were often times in line with the “share everything” hippy movement. Software programs were not initially sold, but rather shown off as a badge of pride in saying “Look what I did and you couldn’t do.” That is a stark contrast to where we are today. The thing that fuels their motivation isn’t money (Bill Gates), ego (Steve Jobs), or power (Gates & Jobs), it does include those, but it also includes the aspect of being proud of your work, your ideas, and sharing them with the world.

In watching the NerdTV interviews and Cringley’s other specials, you see the exact same people making the industry happen, and for what reason? In their words… “to change the world.” You hear that bold reason in nearly every interview. Why? Well… there’s a reason, and due to it’s length it will likely another post at some point. But it is also the same reason that exists today and is a prime motivating factor driving the revolution of Open Source Software, which quite honestly is unlike anything you see in other industries. It is millions of programmers, writing code, and donating it to the world, for what in return? Nothing. Sure it is possible to get high paying consulting jobs, doing what you love, with some of the best companies in the industry (see: Firefox & Gaim developers now working for Google). But to me, that is the beauty of programming and the computer industry today. One person, with one good idea, can in fact change the world, and these people realized that decades ago. There are currently products being developed right now that will have the same impact that Windows did, that VisiCalc did, and Bulletin Board software did. Where and what are they? Who knows. In a recent podcast from Dave Winer (Morning Coffee Talk: Sept. 30th), he said the times we are in now are just like the times 20 years ago when he was in the thick of the software revolution. It is his opinion that users & developers are once again, working together, to create historic ideas, which in the end can change the landscape of the computing industry. Should be fun!