Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ We Were Mostly Wrong: Looking back at 25 years on the web

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

My father was what they call a telephone pioneer and I guess I'm an internet pioneer. I wrote my first computer program in 1979 and was working for Texas Instruments by 1980. By 1991 I was studying for a PhD I would never get, playing in an internet multi-user dungeon (MUD), teaching critical thinking by telephone for Athabasca University, and playing with a thing called the Maximus BBS. At first I didn't like the web (the URLs were too long to type and it was too much like a dead-silent library). But the world of personal web sites and discussion boards opened up the world to me, and I never left. I never thought any of it would turn into a career, but within four years I had my own website and a new job in distance education and new media design. Twenty-five years. Half my life, almost. What a ride. 

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Oct 05, 2024 04:45 a.m.

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