The Story of New Zealand's Internet

Transcription

Jack Yan – CEO, Jack Yan & Associates

“I had a cosmos.wcc.govt.nz account from 1989 when the WCC was experimenting with this new-fangled thing called the Internet. And the funny thing is that I did not see a point to this. I know I’ve got this image of being one of these visionaries but I actually did not foresee how big the Internet was going to become. You can imagine – ’89-’90 – who was on it? Academics, government types... I was quite happy going on Bulletin Boards because Bulletin Boards are at least thematic. I actually went on an architectural one because it was the closest I could find to design. We actually ran one ourselves – a mate of mine called Ian Bailey and I ran one jointly. We heard about this other Bulletin Board, this rival Bulletin Board called Paradise BBS and these guys were offering something crazy and hooking up to the Internet but, man, you had to pay an extra five bucks to go on there! I mean what a rip! Who’s going to go on there?! What’s on there?!”