The Big Interview

The Big Interview aims to provide insightful conversations with the people who make the internet what it is, those who populate it with blogs, videos, music, photos, comments and more.

Film makers, actors, authors, playwrights and sportspeople are regularly the subjects of long-format interviews about what inspires them, their creative process and their contribution to our culture.

But even as the internet becomes the dominant culture of our times, the same doesn’t often apply to the artists, writers, photographers, bloggers, designers, developers, musicians, videographers, meme makers, blog commenters and businesspeople responsible for creating and fostering that culture.

There are plenty of sites covering technology, innovation and culture online but there are too few that go directly to the people behind the culture and business of the web. My goal is to fill at least part of that gap.

As the list above might suggest, we’re completely non-demoninational about what role someone is playing in the creation of internet culture. My goal is to speak to everyone from solo videographers on YouTube to developers who’re coding complex web experiences; from small Flash game creators to businesspeople making multi-million dollar investments in internet culture; from regular blog commenters to popular bloggers making a living from their craft; from backyard DJs to famous musicians using the web to connect with their fans. You get the picture.

Inspiration

The genesis of the idea for The Big Interview came from Andy Baio’s interview with Alan Taylor, the man behind the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture photo blog. Here were the thoughts, in his own words, of the man who’d created what was being called the best new blog of the year.

The Big Picture also inspired the name of this site, alongside The Big Money, Big Contrarian and The Big Noob.

The idea spawned by Andy’s interview was reinforced and expanded as I came across a number of other websites featuring irregular interviews with creative minds online. I’m thinking of examples such as Shawn Blan’s interview with John Gruber, John Gruber’s interview with Brent Simmons, Waferbaby’s series of “nerdy interviews” on the tools geeks use to do their jobs, interviews with designers such as Elliot Jay Stocks on Nettuts+, and The Weekly Review’s interview with Michael Mistretta. Quite simply, I wanted more.

I wanted more insights into the minds of online innovators; I wanted a broader scope of conversation and a broader range of interviewees; and I wanted to read interviews like these more regularly. And so, The Big Interview was born.

My goal is to publish at least one fresh interview a week (which of course depends on people saying yes).

Ideas and suggestions

If you have any suggestions for who you’d like to see interviewed or what you’d like us to ask interviewees, get in touch via Twitter or email.

Credits

The Big Interview runs on Tumblr and uses a modified version of the Plaid Theme by David Kang.