Not very exciting, but a news story on the internet when it was first starting out:

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LOL.

I remember when I was in college, they had this demonstration of the internet. It was in the auditorium, it was packed. They connected to the internet in only 15 minutes and connected to a library in Europe, iirc. They said the library only had 1% of their books on-line but it will grow. Pretty amazing to see how far its come in that short of time.

Later I worked in San Francisco for a while. I knew some damn good hackers. As the internet developed it turned more into commerce (I don't think thats the right word, but hope you get my drift). They felt it should just be informational...I guess. Some pretty eccentric peeps, but cool guys. Anyway they fucked with peeps site that were selling shit a LOT. I know thats kind of OT but its interesting to see how the whole thing developed, etc.

Good find.

"There's not a lot of cursing or swearing, there's not a lot of personal cuts, there's not a lot of put-downs..."

Yes, I think the Internet hasn't changed much from those days.

Am I showing my age if I say that I remember when that special was aired, and remember laughing at how "ivory tower" it was?

The art of the flame war was alive and well by the time of that broadcast (1994 or so). The barriers to entry were high for a long time, and the initial players were more similar than random people picked off the street. Swearing might get users or content banned by the providers of the era, who often had interesting restrictions. So, the nature of the personal cuts and put-downs was different -- but DEFINITELY there. Also, the Internet evangelists were motivated to present the best of the Internet to the mainstream media. They wanted everyone to get onboard, often without a lot of thought as to the pros and cons for the users and for the Internet. "The Internet is full -- go away" takes on a whole new meaning in an age of DDoS attacks. :)

Am I showing my age if I say that I remember when that special was aired, and remember laughing at how "ivory tower" it was?
I think the fact that you clearly made it "appointment tv" (it was on CBC and you remember it to this day), looks worse. Computer Geek "to the max".

At the time, truly good, factual stuff on TV about the Internet was pretty rare. It was fun to see just how badly the mainstream media would blow it, or just which dweeby presence they'd dig up out of a closet (or wank-job with nice hair that typically had no clue) to "represent" the Internet This one I remembered because they called it "Internet" instead of "the Internet", and because they were so Canadian-nice giddy about how liberating it was. It's like being amused by the dumb-ass questions that non-sports reporters who don't know the game ask at the Super Bowl or NBA Finals.

IIRC, someone told me about it and I watched it replay on Channel 9 (because the CBC tends to replay everything a few times).

Now a truly geeky thing to say would be that I sent my first email delivered over the Internet in 1985, and was surprised by the event. But I won't say that... no sir... heaven forbid...

talking about discussions on the internet: "There's not a lot of cursing and swearing.....not a lot of put downs".

shit, we've come along way, baby.