Joichi Ito Podcast: A Quick History of the Internet

by About Japan Editors In this video, Joi Ito, one of the early internet entrepreneuers in Japan, provides a brief overview of the history of the development of the internet and its relationship to innovation, regulation, and industry.  The excerpts is particularly compelling because Ito brings to it his background in technology combined with a long career in business.  Using this perspective, Ito utilizes plain English to explain both the key turning points in the development of the internet, and how these innovations related to business conditions.  Depending on the level and topic of your class, the video can be used to spur a number of different discussions.   Some possible questions include:

1. According to Mr. Ito, what were the key points in developing the internet?  Why was the "openness" of the technology so important in the development of the internet?
2. Using specific examples from the lecture, what are some of the pros and cons of developing technoligies  using "rough consensus running code"? How can the lessons of technology development using "rough consensus running code" be applied more broady to understanding developing ideas and innovations?
3. Why were companies, including many in Japan, opposed to a number of the innovations that led to the development of the internet?  In your opinion, were the concerns of the companies valid?

Joichi Ito is the CEO of Creative Commons. He is a co-founder and board member of Digital Garage and the CEO of Neoteny. He is on the board of Technorati and helps run Technorati Japan. He is the Chairman of Six Apart Japan the weblog software company. He is the board of a number of non-profit organizations including The Mozilla Foundation, WITNESS and Global Voices. He has created numerous Internet companies including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan and was an early stage investor in Six Apart, Technorati, Flickr, SocialText, Dopplr, Last.fm, Rupture, Kongregate, etology Inc and other Internet companies. He has served and continues to serve on various Japanese central as well as local government committees and boards, advising the government on IT, privacy and computer security related issues. He is currently researching "The Sharing Economy" as a Doctor of Business Administration candidate at the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University in Japan. He maintains a weblog where he regularly shares his thoughts with the online community.