CBC Digital Archives

Making friends and influencing people online

From early dreams of global information networks to the dominance of the World Wide Web, networked computers have changed the way Canadians interact with the world. For more than three decades the CBC has reported these advances, some revolutionary, others mere flashes in the technological pan. From ARPANET to MP3s, we look at Canada's first steps onto the information highway, and the people who took us there.

When CBC Television's Midday decided to do a story about people who spend most of their waking hours on the internet, they posted a query online and waited to see what happened. From the flood of responses, three very different individuals came forward to talk: internet business consultant Jim Carroll, chat room enthusiast Kelly Robichaud, and anti-fascism activist Ken McVay. In this clip, they tell Kevin Newman how the internet has changed their world. 
. As the World Wide Web started gaining popularity, Jim Carroll almost immediately became Canada's best-known internet pundit. He has written hundreds of articles and dozens of books, including Surviving the Information Age and, with Rick Broadhead, Get a (Digital) Life: An Internet Reality Check. For over a decade, Carroll and Broadhead also published the yearly Canadian Internet Handbook.

. Ken McVay is the creator of the Nizkor Project, a library and website devoted to Holocaust resources, as well as combating racist and white supremacist activities around the world. The website alone features over 12,000 pages of information, and McVay says his paper collection exceeds one million pages. In 1995 he was awarded the Order of British Columbia, and in 1996 received a special Media Human Rights Award from B'nai Brith Canada.

. The typist in the opening of this clip, described here as "Midday's resident hacker," is Midday producer Mark Mietkiewicz. He became Toronto project manager of this CBC Digital Archives website.
Medium: Television
Program: Midday
Broadcast Date: Nov. 11, 1993
Guest(s): Jim Carroll, Ken McVay, Kelly Robichaud
Host: Kevin Newman
Duration: 9:48

Last updated: January 23, 2013

Page consulted on March 28, 2013

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