Like most employees at xs4all, Kok never had any formal job training, but learned through experience. The company has in fact very few 'real' IT people on its staff, but employs instead mostly computer-hobbyists, nerds, and as one of the female staffers calls them, 'nerdettes'. The filmworld in the xs4all building, and the closed chat channel are in fact an Internet in miniature. Internet is also a whirlpool of information, it is rife with conversations about 'Life, the Universe and Everything', just as what's going on within the walls of xs4all offices. Then the BBC picked up the signal and re-broadcasted the information via satellite over the Balkans.
Idealism is on the rise.
PR-wise, it is far more effective to support an independent radio station than to spend millions on ads. But a quick round amidst the people at xs4all learns that this is not a sale gimmick. Granted, there are a number of employees who don't give a damn about the company's idealism. Their chief stake is the 'geek tech'. But to many, support for independent media is an important incentive to work for xs4all.