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Mosaic Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Aired April 30, 2003 - 14:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right,kids. Let's turn the way back machine back about 10 years. Remember those days when that new fangled Internet was just out there? This is the 10th anniversary this week of a thing called Mosaic, the Internet's first Web browser, ultimately became Netscape.
So how far has the Internet come? Well, it's gone a lot further and become a bigger part of our lives than I ever would have guessed when I did a piece you're about to see in January of 1995 when I interviewed one Marc Andreessen, the founder the of Netscape, and the -- one of the guiding forces, the author of Mosaic about this new fangled thing called the Worldwide Web.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): His office may be cluttered but 23-year- old Marc Andreessen has brought rhyme, reason and maybe soon the masses to the mystifying world of the Internet.

MARC ANDREESSEN, NETSCAPE FOUNDER: I just think it makes sense, We had these really networks with these really powerful computers on everyone's desks and no software to actually use on them.

O'BRIEN (on camera): But for all its promise easy access to the Internet is still not truly practical for most home computer users. Conventional phone lines will send the graphics and the audio clips, but at a painfully slow pace. So for now, this will be primarily useful at businesses and universities which have special high speed connections to the Internet.

ANDREESSEN: We want to bring it to everyone who possibly ever has use for it. Over time, we think that's everyone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: All right. Joining us now is the man you just saw in the piece, Marc Andreessen. I don't know who that reporter was. Some young guy.

Marc, good to have you with us.

ANDREESSEN: Some punk.

O'BRIEN: That's right. Happy anniversary, I guess, is in order.

ANDREESSEN: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Ten years ago, let's talk about what has come true and what has not about the Internet. First, what has -- what dream has been realized that you had way back when you were at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana tapping out Mosiac.

ANDREESSEN: Yes, I mean, it's gone way beyond any of our expectations. I mean, we never no idea it would get this big or this broad. And, you know, our hope was people would find it to be useful.

But the thing that's just amazed me is the thousands or millions of ways that people have found to use it that we never even thought of.

O'BRIEN: Like what?

ANDREESSEN: So there's just been this explosion of creativity.

Well, you know, eBay, for example. You just talked about auction scams. I mean, who would have known that there were millions and millions of people who would spend all day long sitting in front of their computers, buying and selling, you know, Pez dispensers and everything else that, you know, in their garages. I mean, who would have guessed?

And the -- you know, there's -- there's -- there's so many stories like that and there's so many people, you know, who earn their living by doing things like that now. There are -- are -- it's changed so many people's lives. We never had no idea any where near, you know, this level of growth.

O'BRIEN: All right. And what among your predictions 10 years ago have not come true or what has disappointed you most, I guess, is maybe another question.

ANDREESSEN: I don't know. It hasn't been -- there really hasn't been anything particularly disappointing. It's just been -- it's just been such an extraordinary phenomenon.

You know, a couple years ago -- you know, three, four, five years ago, it was starting to look like things were maybe going to stall out because it was looking like broadband at the home wouldn't be arriving that fast and there was a lot of disappointment around that. And then in the last, you know, three or four years, even during the -- you know, the big bust, you know, broadband to the home has just taken off and DSL and cable modems and all these things -- I mean, people all over the country, you know -- huge -- tens of millions of people have broadband to the home now. So even the stuff that took longer then maybe people would have hoped it's -- it's -- it's happening.

O'BRIEN: So there's a bit of impatience there, but -- I mean, it sounds like a stupid question but I guess it's worth asking. It is here to stay, right? ANDREESSEN: Oh, yes. Yes. I mean -- and this is what we think ios -- you know, we think it's funny back in Silicon Valley is people, you know -- you people, you know, out here in New York and other places say, you know, the Internet's dead. you know, stick a fork in it. There's no, you know, opportunity or anything. And -- and, you know, the business opportunities are over and you look at the Internet, every fundamental metric behind the Internet, the number of users, the number of minutes per day they spend online, the number -- the amount of money people spend on e-commerce, the number of Internet auctions -- every single metric is up and to the right continuously, every day, every week, every months all the way through. And so, you know, it's just -- it's just a steam roller.

O'BRIEN: It just kind of got carried away there for a little while.

All right. Just -- just for a moment, I'd like you to give me a sound bite that I'm going to use 10 years from now when we do the 20th anniversary. Make your prediction what lies ahead for the Internet and browsers and the business in general.

ANDREESSEN: Yes, I think it's going to be very hard to predict how the Internet gets used in five or 10 years. But I think that what people are going to be really surprised at is how wrong people were in 2002, 2003, 2004 that you know, technology was getting boring and that, you know, people weren't going to be doing anything new and that innovation is dead and, you know, all the things you read these days. There's a new article in "Harvard Business Review" talking about how there's no new innovation in technology and the Internet's just another -- just like the railroad and it's just going to fade into the background and it's not going to be important.

I think people are going to be stunned at the amount of growth and the amount of creativity and the number of new applications and things people are doing with it over the next 10 years.

O'BRIEN: So there's a second wind lurking there?

ANDREESSEN: Yes, it's just -- yes, I mean, everything keeps going. And, you know, expectations got out of hand three, four or five years ago but it's still growing extremely fast.

O'BRIEN: All right. What are you up to these days?

ANDREESSEN: These days we have a software company. Actually, a lot of Netscape people -- called Ops Wear. Doing very well. Public company selling software, growing quite quickly. And we're building software to actually clean up a lot of the mess that got created during the build-out of the Internet. So we build software that automates how people run these networks and how they run all these servers that serve up all these Internet sits. So it's actually a lot of fun.

O'BRIEN: I'm glad you mentioned that mess because I remember on your desk there was an ham sandwich there. Is it still there?

ANDREESSEN: No, I think that's pretty much been swept up, I hope. I'll check when I get back.

O'BRIEN: OK. Marc Andreessen. Great to have you with us, Congratulations on success that no one could have imagined 10 years later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 30, 2003 - 14:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right,kids. Let's turn the way back machine back about 10 years. Remember those days when that new fangled Internet was just out there? This is the 10th anniversary this week of a thing called Mosaic, the Internet's first Web browser, ultimately became Netscape.
So how far has the Internet come? Well, it's gone a lot further and become a bigger part of our lives than I ever would have guessed when I did a piece you're about to see in January of 1995 when I interviewed one Marc Andreessen, the founder the of Netscape, and the -- one of the guiding forces, the author of Mosaic about this new fangled thing called the Worldwide Web.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): His office may be cluttered but 23-year- old Marc Andreessen has brought rhyme, reason and maybe soon the masses to the mystifying world of the Internet.

MARC ANDREESSEN, NETSCAPE FOUNDER: I just think it makes sense, We had these really networks with these really powerful computers on everyone's desks and no software to actually use on them.

O'BRIEN (on camera): But for all its promise easy access to the Internet is still not truly practical for most home computer users. Conventional phone lines will send the graphics and the audio clips, but at a painfully slow pace. So for now, this will be primarily useful at businesses and universities which have special high speed connections to the Internet.

ANDREESSEN: We want to bring it to everyone who possibly ever has use for it. Over time, we think that's everyone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: All right. Joining us now is the man you just saw in the piece, Marc Andreessen. I don't know who that reporter was. Some young guy.

Marc, good to have you with us.

ANDREESSEN: Some punk.

O'BRIEN: That's right. Happy anniversary, I guess, is in order.

ANDREESSEN: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Ten years ago, let's talk about what has come true and what has not about the Internet. First, what has -- what dream has been realized that you had way back when you were at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana tapping out Mosiac.

ANDREESSEN: Yes, I mean, it's gone way beyond any of our expectations. I mean, we never no idea it would get this big or this broad. And, you know, our hope was people would find it to be useful.

But the thing that's just amazed me is the thousands or millions of ways that people have found to use it that we never even thought of.

O'BRIEN: Like what?

ANDREESSEN: So there's just been this explosion of creativity.

Well, you know, eBay, for example. You just talked about auction scams. I mean, who would have known that there were millions and millions of people who would spend all day long sitting in front of their computers, buying and selling, you know, Pez dispensers and everything else that, you know, in their garages. I mean, who would have guessed?

And the -- you know, there's -- there's -- there's so many stories like that and there's so many people, you know, who earn their living by doing things like that now. There are -- are -- it's changed so many people's lives. We never had no idea any where near, you know, this level of growth.

O'BRIEN: All right. And what among your predictions 10 years ago have not come true or what has disappointed you most, I guess, is maybe another question.

ANDREESSEN: I don't know. It hasn't been -- there really hasn't been anything particularly disappointing. It's just been -- it's just been such an extraordinary phenomenon.

You know, a couple years ago -- you know, three, four, five years ago, it was starting to look like things were maybe going to stall out because it was looking like broadband at the home wouldn't be arriving that fast and there was a lot of disappointment around that. And then in the last, you know, three or four years, even during the -- you know, the big bust, you know, broadband to the home has just taken off and DSL and cable modems and all these things -- I mean, people all over the country, you know -- huge -- tens of millions of people have broadband to the home now. So even the stuff that took longer then maybe people would have hoped it's -- it's -- it's happening.

O'BRIEN: So there's a bit of impatience there, but -- I mean, it sounds like a stupid question but I guess it's worth asking. It is here to stay, right? ANDREESSEN: Oh, yes. Yes. I mean -- and this is what we think ios -- you know, we think it's funny back in Silicon Valley is people, you know -- you people, you know, out here in New York and other places say, you know, the Internet's dead. you know, stick a fork in it. There's no, you know, opportunity or anything. And -- and, you know, the business opportunities are over and you look at the Internet, every fundamental metric behind the Internet, the number of users, the number of minutes per day they spend online, the number -- the amount of money people spend on e-commerce, the number of Internet auctions -- every single metric is up and to the right continuously, every day, every week, every months all the way through. And so, you know, it's just -- it's just a steam roller.

O'BRIEN: It just kind of got carried away there for a little while.

All right. Just -- just for a moment, I'd like you to give me a sound bite that I'm going to use 10 years from now when we do the 20th anniversary. Make your prediction what lies ahead for the Internet and browsers and the business in general.

ANDREESSEN: Yes, I think it's going to be very hard to predict how the Internet gets used in five or 10 years. But I think that what people are going to be really surprised at is how wrong people were in 2002, 2003, 2004 that you know, technology was getting boring and that, you know, people weren't going to be doing anything new and that innovation is dead and, you know, all the things you read these days. There's a new article in "Harvard Business Review" talking about how there's no new innovation in technology and the Internet's just another -- just like the railroad and it's just going to fade into the background and it's not going to be important.

I think people are going to be stunned at the amount of growth and the amount of creativity and the number of new applications and things people are doing with it over the next 10 years.

O'BRIEN: So there's a second wind lurking there?

ANDREESSEN: Yes, it's just -- yes, I mean, everything keeps going. And, you know, expectations got out of hand three, four or five years ago but it's still growing extremely fast.

O'BRIEN: All right. What are you up to these days?

ANDREESSEN: These days we have a software company. Actually, a lot of Netscape people -- called Ops Wear. Doing very well. Public company selling software, growing quite quickly. And we're building software to actually clean up a lot of the mess that got created during the build-out of the Internet. So we build software that automates how people run these networks and how they run all these servers that serve up all these Internet sits. So it's actually a lot of fun.

O'BRIEN: I'm glad you mentioned that mess because I remember on your desk there was an ham sandwich there. Is it still there?

ANDREESSEN: No, I think that's pretty much been swept up, I hope. I'll check when I get back.

O'BRIEN: OK. Marc Andreessen. Great to have you with us, Congratulations on success that no one could have imagined 10 years later.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com