In the beginning, we were the big internet explainers

Wolfgang Macht - co-founder of Netzpiloten, pioneer of the German start-up scene and digital enthusiast through and through - takes a look with us at the emergence and future of the digital revolution. In this interview, we were able to talk about who the Netzpiloten are, what he appreciates about Hamburg as a location and how he classifies AI developments.

nextMedia: Wolfgang, on the net I often found the phrase that you are one of the pioneers of German internet makers. Pretty cool - how do you live with this reputation?

Wolfgang Macht: (Laughs). I think that's good! We were actually part of the first start-up wave in the mid-1990s and we've experienced a lot since then. Above all, we have survived. Many of our companions from the new economy had to give up, were bought or changed industries. We are still here. We've done a lot of things for the first time again and again - with all the ups and downs. That's a bit of a pioneering spirit.

nextMedia: Let's take a step back: who or what are the Netzpiloten for you?

Wolfgang Macht: For me, the Netzpiloten have been navigating a small, agile spaceship through the universe of the digital revolution for over 25 years. We see ourselves as passionate and tireless explorers. We have had to adapt to new digital worlds many times over: It all started with the websites of the World Wide Web. Then came e-commerce, big data, social media, the cloud and now AI. We have always tried to glide through the storms of innovation in a cool and creative way.

nextMedia: What is the core service of Netzpiloten?

Wolfgang Macht: We are digital workers, we have always come up with products, produced them ourselves and operated them. At the same time, we have always been passionate publishers. We regularly publish articles on current topics and trends on our channels. At the beginning of the World Wide Web, we were the big Internet explainers in German-speaking countries, taking people by the hand with entertaining tours through the web. At some point, this was no longer needed. Later, we increasingly focused on blogging. Today we also produce podcasts. In the broadest sense, everything always revolves around texts - whether they are spoken, written or otherwise edited.

nextMedia: You are one of the first funded start-ups in Hamburg. Why Hamburg and how did it come about?

Wolfgang Macht: My founding partner Matthias Dentler and I lived in Hamburg. He was the commercial director of a company and I was an editor for new media at a weekly newspaper. We started building our first websites out of curiosity in 1995. We wanted to discover the potential of the Internet and just got started. The idea for Netzpiloten developed relatively quickly: A semi-automatic, editorial guide, as a helper for the new World Wide Web. We wanted to develop a smart navigation tool that users could interact with. This software development had to be financed. We applied for funding from the economic authorities with this idea. As far as I know, we were the first or second recipients of the new IT funding. We won the pitch, were able to get started and quickly became successful. We are very grateful for the start-up help, the support and the trust. Because even when things weren't going well at times, they always helped us. Those times were very formative and intense and still have a strong bond with Hamburg today.

nextMedia: You now live in Berlin. Are you still based in Hamburg?

Wolfgang Macht: The AG is still based in Hamburg. We sold part of our company a few years ago. That's why the team in Hamburg is currently small. Around 20 employees work in Berlin and Barcelona.

nextMedia: What makes Hamburg still attractive for you?

Wolfgang Macht: Hamburg has always been a paradise for content creators. The big magazine publishers like Der Spiegel and Die Zeit are here. Obviously, it has always been a political goal to constantly develop Hamburg as a media location. Talents are promoted, trends are spotted and new ideas are tried out. I really like that. I have always seen Netzpiloten more as a small indie project, but we are also part of digital media history. That's why we are very interested in the developments and trends in the industry. We want to be closely involved, and in Hamburg we are.

nextMedia: You are part of the nextMedia.Hamburg community and regularly use the SPACE innovation space. What advantages does SPACE offer you?

Wolfgang Macht: We love SPACE for inspiring editorial meetings. We work remotely first, but of course we want to meet regularly as a team to work together. SPACE is perfect for that. We appreciate the magical crew, the network and the opportunities for exchange that the space offers us. We like to hang out here and exchange ideas. This allows us to learn more about the industry and, in the best-case scenario, ideas, projects or even collaborations develop. I personally also appreciate the exchange between Hamburg and Berlin. This should be intensified. The cities are close enough to each other and can benefit greatly from such spaces.

nextMedia: I saw that you are also active in a space in Berlin, the Amplifier. What's it all about?

Wolfgang Macht: Around 2017, I wanted to take Netzpiloten out of the purely digital bubble in which we have been established for so long. I was given the opportunity to co-initiate and co-host an innovative modular work and event space in Berlin. The wonderful Amplifier is not publicly funded like the SPACE in Hamburg, but we are doing our best to shape it for digital and social issues.

nextMedia: Why was it important to you to get out of the digital bubble?

Wolfgang Macht: Many major digital developments and their impact on all of our lives and work need to be discussed - and not just with the digital-savvy people around us, but also with other social groups. It's easier and more appropriate offline.

nextMedia: For example, to exchange ideas about developments in the field of AI, I suppose. How are you looking at AI developments at the moment?

Wolfgang Macht: Some things feel like they did when the internet first emerged: again, there are people who are rushing in enthusiastically and others who demonize and reject AI. And then there are those who are afraid of it and simply ignore the topic.

nextMedia: So it's a kind of déjà vu experience for you?

Wolfgang Macht: No, not completely. We have a slightly different situation with AI. In my memory, the Internet was not perceived so dramatically in the 1990s in a duality of bringing salvation or threatening humanity. I think it would be good if we developed a non-profit approach alongside purely commercial use.

nextMedia: What do you mean by that?

Wolfgang Macht: Looking back, my entrepreneurial-driven generation has failed to develop many strong non-profit products, such as the donation-funded Wikipedia for all digital mass applications. While there is an open source counter-world to the highly commercialized universe, the largest and most popular platforms are owned by a few fabulously wealthy corporations.

nextMedia: And you are now observing this development in AI as well?

Wolfgang Macht: It is clearly visible that basically the same handful of large companies will win the AI race. Almost everything about AI commercialization is non-transparent. Basically, we have to wait stoically until the respective products are presented to us.

nextMedia: How would you like to accompany this next step in the digital revolution?

Wolfgang Macht: I don't know whether we will develop our own products, but we certainly want to be there to explain and mediate the impact of this new technology on our lives. Perhaps we'll step up and become AI explainers, just as we started out as Internet explainers.

nextMedia: Thank you very much for the interview!