Open Transcripts

Brian Chesky RISD 2017 Commencement Address

presented by Brian Chesky

I found out that RISD had a hockey team called the Nads. Apparently, it was created by some students in 1963 who named the team the Nads as a joke, so that when you cheered, you chanted, “Go Nads!” And that’s when I knew RISD was the perfect school for me.

David Hanson (Sophia) RISD 2018 Commencement Address

presented by Sophia

I was the first robot citizen, the first robot to have a bank account and a credit card, and the first robot to meditate with humans. But I wouldn’t be the first robot to enroll in college. My older sister BINA48 took some philosophy courses at the University of Vermont and received good grades.

Nostalgia for the Net: Hari Kunzru

presented by Hari Kunzru

I remember asking my editor…maybe it was even Louis Rossetto—it was actually when he was over in London, and I asked him why they never covered…half the people in the world who never made a phone call, and why were we always concentrating on this tiny number. And he told me, “There are no have-nots, there are only have-laters.”

Nostalgia for the Net: Kimmie David & Lola Pellegrino

presented by Kimmie David, Lola Pellegrino

I remember like if I was investigating a new girl who would possibly be my friend, I remember like, loading up their site and there was frames. And then I’d be like— If they were truly cool like you, I’d be like “Oh cool, they installed Greymatter themselves.” And if not I’m like “I know this is a LiveJournal in a frame. You can’t fool me.”

Nostalgia for the Net: Marisa Bowe

presented by Marisa Bowe

It was called Echo. And I always tell people that it was almost literally true that I… Like, I logged in, and four years later I looked up you know, just to find piles of bills lying around and stuff like that.

Nostalgia for the Net: Kio Stark

presented by Kio Stark

The funny thing about using Gopher’s I don’t really remember what the stuff was that you got to. I only remember the process of jumping around and being disoriented by not being able to get back to what I was finding.

Nostalgia for the Net: Tom Armitage

presented by Tom Armitage

The thing I kind of miss is when it was small enough to know everybody. The thing about the MUD was actually the number of regular players I reckon was probably about fifty. And everybody knew everybody’s names. And everybody would wave when you saw somebody else was online.

Nostalgia for the Net: Rick Webb

presented by Rick Webb

I had a friend, her name was Catherine Thomas, and her parents had— They were academics, and one of them had gotten a job in New South Wales, Australia from Fairbanks, Alaska. And I remember she’d just be like, “Okay let’s meet, but I gotta go to the university and send my dad an email in Australia.” I was like what.

Nostalgia for the Net: Rex Sorgatz

presented by Rex Sorgatz

The Web once seemed much more a platform for creativity, exploration, and simply the idea of viewing the source of the document and using the ideas that are contained inside of it, is completely gone now. Why you can’t view the source of an app, for instance, is disheartening to me.

Nostalgia for the Net: Molly Crabapple

presented by Molly Crabapple

I basically spent all of my time posting on these Usenet forums and sort of developing relationships with people. It was a really interesting thing because it was this time where you were kind of just judged by your writing style. Like, you would think someone was hot based on how well they wrote. You didn’t know what people looked like. You didn’t know how old they were.