Can Traceroute Podcast Win a Webby? Your Vote Makes the Difference!
Guess what? We're freaking out (in the best way!) because the Traceroute Podcast just got nominated for aWebby Awardin the Tech category! That's right, we're apparently one of thetop 5 tech podcasts in the WORLD– which is prettywild considering there were over13,000 projectsentered! So, can you help us win this thing?It only takes2 minutestocast your vote here by Thursday, April 18th. Every vote counts! ️
Could our mistakes be as important to technological development as our ideas?
No matter the layers in your stack there’s one inevitability about all of our systems: errors. Misunderstandings, miscalculations, and mishaps are so much a part of the human experience, they can’t help but get baked into the increasingly complex socio-technical systems that we create. Historically we’ve always aimed to reduce our bug counts or have fewer incidents, but what if we instead, thought of these errors as opportunities to better refine our understandings of how our systems interact with the world around them? Maybe, in fact, our mistakes are at least as important to technological development as our innovative ideas? In this fascinating episode of Traceroute, we start back in 1968, when “The Mother of All Demos” was supposed to change the face of personal computing…before the errors started. We’re then joined by Andrew Clay Shafer, a DevOps pioneer who has seen the evolution of “errors” to “incidents” through practices like Scrum, Agile, and Chaos Engineering. We also speak with Courtney Nash, a Cognitive Neuroscientist and Researcher whose Verica Open Incident Directory (VOID) has changed the way we look at incident reporting.Podcast | Traceroute - Episode 8: When the lights go out
Synopsis How do we make technology that lasts? In this episode, Grace Ewura-Esi and Shweta Saraf join Producer John Taylor as he talks with two cutting-edge technologists who are trying to extend the life of the hardware infrastructure around us. From a cell phone tower that can be installed on your roof (and repaired just as easily), to a clock that is built to last ten thousand years, we uncover the common threads that run through technology that’s built to last. Woven in this framework is the story of Sandra Rodriguez, who worked tirelessly to restore civilization—as well as hope itself—to the island of Puerto Rico with the help of the only piece of hardware infrastructure that withstood the powerful forces of Hurricane Maria in 2017. Let us know your thoughts below!Podcast | Traceroute - Episode 7: Compute
Synopsis Hardware is the invisible skeleton of the Internet. Not only has it given us access to the world's base of knowledge, but with the cloud, a seemingly infinite storage space for files. Of course, the cloud is neither ethereal nor located in the air: it's a massive network of huge data centers. And running these facilities sustainably while innovating hardware to keep up with demand is one of the great technological challenges of our time. In the final episode of Traceroute, we take a closer look at hardware and why its advancement is crucial to the development of the internet. Joined by our guests Amir Michael, Rose Schooler, and Ken Patchett, we explore the synergy of software and hardware in data center services and its effects on the connected world. Let us know your thoughts below!Podcast | Traceroute - Episode 6: Sustainability
Synopsis In episode 6 of Traceroute, we address arguably the most critical component of them all: sustainability. As demand for data rises, so too does our environmental impact, and in turn, the need to rapidly course correct to sustain rapid expansion without taking a toll on our planet. But it’s not just a matter of mitigating individual consumption—like streaming YouTube & Netflix–by recycling resources and using clean energy. The social and political ramifications of the internet are reshaping our society more rapidly than we can keep up with, demanding that we look at internet development with a sense of personal responsibility. Let us know your thoughts below!Podcast | Traceroute - Episode 1: Interconnection
Synopsis October 4th, 1957. The Soviet Union launches Sputnik into orbit, and with it, a perilous escalation in the Cold War. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is formed with a mandate to keep our military and technological assets ahead of the Soviets. From his tiny office in a corner of the Pentagon, one engineer not only recognizes the need to rely on more powerful computers to win this conflict, but that these computers must somehow find a way to “talk” to one another. In the first episode of Traceroute, we look at how the need for interconnection shaped the fundamental building blocks of what would become the internet. From ARPANET to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, what started as a military exercise grew to reflect society’s basic need to feel and stay connected. And with that growth came an unprecedented need for hardware solutions that had never been thought of before. With insights from Jay Adelson, Sarah Weinberger, John Morris, and Peter Van Camp, we’ll look at the social, political, and technological forces that started the internet. Let us know your thoughts below!New Podcast | Traceroute - Check it out!
The Podcast for digital pioneers Traceroute is a fascinating look into the inner workings of our digital world. Technical Storyteller, Grace Andrews, examines the real people, the social changes, and the hardware innovations that built and scaled the internet. Listen on:Apple| Spotify| RSS Community Posts: Episode 1: Interconnection Episode 2: Silicon Episode 3: Networks Episode 4: Wireless Episode 5: Open Source Episode 6: Sustainability Episode 7: ComputeFasten your seatbelts – Traceroute explores the world of flying cars
We were promised flying cars. We were told that by the year 2000, cities would float in the clouds, robots would cut our hair, and there’d be a computer in everyone’s pocket. Well, one out of three ain’t bad. The question is, why? Why did we think the future would bring interstate moving sidewalks, but we ended up with the internet instead? In this episode of Traceroute, we take an in-depth look at why we get the technology we get…and our trail leads to three distinct factors. Helping us unravel the reason behind these factors is Mike Winterfield, Founder of Active Impact Investments, a VC firm that specializes in Green Tech. We also talk with Oliver Walker-Jones of Joby Aviation, one of several companies that are finally making flying cars, who shares his insight as to why it took almost a hundred years to get from the idea of the flying car to the reality of one.
