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On 15 January 2014 it was exactly 20 years ago that the Internet went public with the arrival of the ‘Digital City’ in Amsterdam (DDS). For the first time in history, it offered access to an open, social online environment in Amsterdam.
The early adopters were mostly hackers and artists, a wider audience followed suit. There was even some congestion on the digital ‘highway’, as modems were sold out in Amsterdam.
Waag Society, an institute for art, science and technology in Amsterdam, used the anniversary of De Digitale Stad as the starting point for its campaign ‘The Internet is broken. Let’s fix the internet’, an attempt to create a roadmap for the future of the Internet. Waag Society will be joining the international movement that wants to make the Internet secure and reliable. Goals of this movement are spreading knowledge on the structures behind the Internet, the development of secure protocols, hardware and NSA-proof software, designing user-friendly cryptography, supporting data protection legislation and developing alternative social media and search engines.
Read more
- Waag Society: 20 years Digital City
- Waag Society: Twenty years of ‘˜De Digitale Stad’ – the start of the social web