Interviewer: It's just a tool, though, isn't it?
Bowie: No, it's not... no, it's an alien life form [laughs]. It's just arrived from Mars.
1998?
Pre-1997, the internet and the web were both very confidential. It started to become a thing in the public mind around that time, and seeing it, in 2000 (apparently the proper date of the interview) as an alien life form is very insightful.
He perfectly summarized the relationship between the art and the internet: "That gray space in the middle (between the artist and the audience) is what the 21st century is about"
Also it is fascinating how certain he was that new mediums will emerge and how different they will be from what we knew back then. When we were pioneering current style of social media with Jaiku back in 2006, many smart people failed to understood how powerful social broadcast media could be. But Bowie was already in 2000 understanding the power of it.
As far as I know, he did news paper and TV intervews, released albums, played live shows and acted in movies. Doesn't seem very "social broadcast media" to me.
As for banking on it, he hasn't had to worry about money for a very long time - he's been one of the richest artists/musicians in the world for at least the last two decades.
Regarding the content. There was another company that did the design work, a bunch of it in flash; but also in HTML for the message boards and stuff that we integrated into our PHP forum that had all the actual messages stored in MySQL. I'm not sure what would have happened to any of that when VillageWorld (the company that did the backend at least initially) went bust in 2004; or if it was migrated away or shut down before that.
The live chats were either IRC with a Java web client or we also had an NPH script that we could of used, but I don't remember which ended up being "real" at this point. There were definitely some that were organized and others that were not.
Care to give more details, stories, etc? BowieNet sounds fascinating to me.
There's so much data today, everything is stored and categorized, but I still believe that, say, 20 years from now, a lot will be lost nevertheless. No matter how easy it is to store stuff today.
$10 on Steam as well: http://store.steampowered.com/app/243000/
One of my favorite games, however I recommend playing it on Dreamcast if that's an option, as the PC controls are a little painful to work with.
Engelbart also thought we would get somewhere alien. He underestimated the power of the mainstream.
The BowieNet domain was davidbowie.com, not bowie.net (as noted under the screenshot in the article).
Isn't it the same thing Trump gets ridiculed for? ;)
"BowieNet also operated as a full internet service provider (ISP) in the US and UK, competing with AOL, Claranet and others. For a monthly fee, members got an @davidbowie.com-ending email address and exclusive access to audio recordings, music videos and chat rooms, which the singer participated in himself."
BowieNet VPN Account: For $19.95/month subscribers can obtain full Internet Service Access via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) arrangement with Concentric Networks. Instead of dialing into AOL or your local ISP, you dial a Concentric Networks number and gain full Internet access (web browsing, email, chat, news, FTP) on the back of Concentric's worldwide network. $19.95/month accounts also get an exclusive BowieNet CD-ROM which includes all the software necessary to get you on the Internet together with two video tracks and a newly recorded audio track called Fun.
Premium Content: For $5.95/month subscribers who want to retain their current Internet provider can sign up to obtain a username and password to access the premium content of BowieNet. That includes everything on the web as in the BowieNet VPN account, but doesn't include the CD-ROM with the exclusive tracks.
From a contemporary review: http://www.teenagewildlife.com/Othermedia/BowieNet/review.ht...
Also note the mysterious ";)" at the end of my comment. It indicates I wasn't being serious
