Joichi Ito, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, joins Halley Suitt for a bi-cultural stroll down Memory Lane, explaining how it felt growing up in both the US and Japan in the 1980's and 1990's as new technologies were changing both countries in very different ways. The wide-ranging conversation helps put many recent trends (mobility, blogging, etc.) into perspective.

Joi recalls his early encounters with the Net and especially the pager culture among Japanese kids as the beginnings of SMS and texting took root, the imode phone (NTT DoCoMo's mobile internet access system), playing Essex University's MUD, Arpanet on both sides of the ocean, Netcom, working in music and entertainment in the pre-Napster days, starting Infoseek Japan, PSI Japan, Digital Garage, and Neoteny.

As they discuss the tech world from 1994 - 2004, he talks about blogging and the gift culture that spawned it, about how the early pre-dotcom bubble entrepreneurs were just having fun and hacking, until serious money came in chasing deals in the late 90's, how the dot bust recuscitated that no-money-try-anything hacking environment in the last few years which brought blogging and RSS to the forefront, as well as his current work with Creative Commons, Technorati and Six Apart.

This program is part of the Memory Lane series featuring Halley Suitt.