BBC: the virtual revolution caused by the internet

An excellent series of BBC TV reports about the impact of the internet. I like the part about the generation gap caused by growing up with the net, how it makes you think differently. After all the arguments I have with my stuck in the 60's parents, I believe it.

NOTE: not all episodes are here

Part One: The Great Levelling

In the first in this four-part series, Aleks charts the extraordinary rise of blogs, Wikipedia and YouTube.
She also traces an ongoing clash between the freedom the technology offers us, and our innate human desire to control and profit.

Part Two: Enemy Of The State

Aleks charts how the Web is forging a new brand of politics, both in democracies and authoritarian regimes.
With contributions from Al Gore, Martha Lane Fox, Stephen Fry and Bill Gates, the programme explores how interactive, unmediated sites like Twitter and YouTube have encouraged direct action and politicised young people in unprecedented numbers.
Yet, at the same time, the Web's openness enables hardline states to spy and censor, and extremists to threaten with networks of hate and crippling cyber attacks.

Part Three: The Cost Of Free

Aleks gives the lowdown on how, for better and for worse, commerce has colonised the web - and reveals how web users are paying for what appear to be 'free' sites and services in hidden ways.
Joined by some of the most influential business leaders of today's web - including Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon), Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google), Chad Hurley (CEO of YouTube) and Bill Gates, the programme traces how business - with varying degrees of success - has attempted to make money on the web.
She tells the inside story of the gold rush years of the dotcom bubble, and reveals how retailers such as Amazon learned the lessons.
The programme also charts how, out of the ashes, Google forged the business model that has come to dominate today's web, offering a plethora of highly attractive, overtly free web services - including search, maps and video - that are in fact funded through a sophisticated and highly lucrative advertising system which trades on what we users look for.

in reference to: BBC World Service - Programmes - The Virtual Revolution: How and when to listen (view on Google Sidewiki)