Andy Baio really outdid himself the other day. He converted an old BBC program that he had sitting around on a VHS tape and uploaded the hour-long show to Google Video for all of us to see:

He also did research on everyone who was in the video telling us where they are now:

• BBC Two’s Horizon on “The Electronic Frontier” in 1993 – Waxy.org

In 1993, I had just graduated from college and was working at a biomedical testing lab. I used a Mac to work every day. By 1994, we went to our first Comdex, so seeing this video is like a walk through memory lane for me.

More importantly, I’m surprised at how spot on the predictions of some of the people interviewed were. When Denise Caruso is talking about the two-edged sword of the “Information Wants To Be Free” debate, I was sincerely awed by how forward-looking she was. We are still in a conundrum concerning copyright laws and online privacy. She predicted it fifteen years earlier.

There is an interview with Howard Rheingold where he mentions the loneliness he encounters writing in his room every day and how he combats it with a UseNet addiction. Today, building community online AND offline is still a major focus. He was social networking before social networking was cool.

Thanks for posting this video, Andy! You can’t imagine how much I enjoyed watching this!