Michael Calore: Lauren, can you imagine doing your job without some type of cloud-based software?
Lauren Goode: Yes, I could. I would go live in a cottage in a fairy forest and use my quill and ink to just write tortured things on paper that no one will ever read.
Michael Calore: Right, well, I mean, you couldn’t do this job without—
Lauren Goode: No, I could not do this job working for WIRED Magazine without accessing the cloud, yeah, and I can’t imagine going back to even trading floppies, or whatever we were doing back then.
Michael Calore: Yes, that and FTP, that is what we were doing.
Lauren Goode: Oh my gosh, and peer-to-peer.
Michael Calore: Peer-to-peer.
Lauren Goode: We’d share music on Napster, Mike.
Michael Calore: All right, well, what if I told you that there are apps available right now that let multiple people all edit a document at the same time. and that they’re doing this without the cloud?
Lauren Goode: Without the cloud?
Michael Calore: Without the cloud.
Lauren Goode: Say more.
Michael Calore: Well, computers are magic, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’re going to learn all about it today.
Lauren Goode: I can’t wait.
[Gadget Lab intro theme music plays]
Michael Calore: Hi everyone, welcome to Gadget Lab. I am Michael Calore, I’m a senior editor at WIRED.
Lauren Goode: And I’m Lauren Goode, I’m a senior writer at WIRED.
Michael Calore: We’re also joined today by WIRED staff writer Greg Barber.
Greg Barber: Hi, good to be here.
Michael Calore: Hi, Greg.
Lauren Goode: Great to have you on the show, Greg, and here in studio.
Greg Barber: I know, it’s beautiful. You guys have had some upgrades since I was last here.
Lauren Goode: Yeah, thanks to Boone, our excellent producer.
Michael Calore: Well, yes, welcome back. You’re no longer in a Zoom window, you’re now actually in a chair.
Greg Barber: Yes, yes, big upgrade.
Michael Calore: Today we are talking about local-first computing. The term is probably new to you, but the concepts behind it might make sense to you. Local-first computing describes a type of software that lets you collaborate on files with people on other computers. I’m here at the office and I’m typing into a document; you’re across town at a coffee shop, and you have the same document open on your computer, and you see all of my changes appear on your screen in real time. Sounds just like Google Docs, right?
Lauren Goode: Mm-hmm.
Michael Calore: And every other web-based collaboration tool. The approach of local-first computing is conceptually similar, but the way it works behind the scenes is quite different. Now Greg, you have written a feature for WIRED that is appearing online this week. People can read it on WIRED.com, and it’s about the local-first computing movement. So you know all about this because you’ve been researching it and interviewing many of the people behind it, so we’re hoping you can start the show by explaining to us how local-first computing is different from cloud-based computing that people are familiar with, like good old Google Docs and Slack, and things like that.
