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"It was the Orwellian year of 1984, when Stewart Brand, originator of the Whole Earth Catalog, and Larry Brilliant, a philanthropic doctor, created The Whole Earth 'Lectric Link, or The Well. Yet, rather than heralding Big Brother, it soon became a liberating cultural innovation that has helped change our world. A balky VAX computer and a rack of modems in ramshackle offices in Sausalito, California, The Well provided a place in the virtual world for people to discuss myriad topics online. It also had a dual existence as members organized parties and rallied to give emotional and financial support to fellow members in crisis. The Well quickly became a community as cherished by its denizens as any small town in America." "This fascinating chronicle of an innovative business venture is also a moving story of interconnected lives. Well Beings ranged from commune-dwellers to technologists to business people to Deadheads. But all members adhered to founder Brand's original credo of personal responsibility, "You own your own words." As revealing as diary entries, dozens of verbatim electronic postings provide unique windows into such events as: Maurice Weitman's reunion with his biological mother: "After over twelve years of searching, and almost forty years of wondering, I've located the woman who gave birth to me and then relinquished me for adoption"; a brutal lovers' quarrel between Tom Mandel and Maria Syndicus that dominated conversation on The Well for weeks, followed months later by his farewell, amid a tragic bout with cancer: "So, thank you all, my best wishes and prayers to each and everyone of you. It's been a fabulous life and it wouldn't have been the same without you.""--BOOK JACKET.
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1
The Well: a story of love, death, and real life in the seminal online community
2001, Carroll & Graf
in English
- 1st Carroll & Graf ed.
0786708468 9780786708468
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2
The Well: A Story of Love, Death & Real Life in the Seminal Online Community
April 2001, Carroll & Graf Publishers
Hardcover
in English
- 1st Carroll & Graf Ed edition
0786708468 9780786708468
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3
The Well: a story of love, death, and real life in the seminal online community
2001, Carroll & Graf
in English
- 1st Carroll & Graf ed.
0786708468 9780786708468
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4
The Well: a story of love, death, and real life in the seminal online community
2001, Carroll & Graf
in English
- 1st Carroll & Graf ed.
0786708468 9780786708468
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Book Details
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New York
Edition Notes
Includes index.
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Work Description
The Well was conceived during the Orwellian year of 1984, yet instead of heralding Big Brother, it became a boundary-breaking cultural invention that helped change our world. Though few glimpsed its potential, it quickly became indispensable to the evolution of the Internet as we know it today. Its creators were Larry Brilliant, a visionary software engineer and philanthropic doctor, and Stewart Brand, Sixties legend and originator of The Whole Earth Catalog. They imagined a new kind of community, one whose members would meet in everyday space, as ideal communities always have, while also inhabiting a new kind of environment, the virtual ether of a world that hadn't even yet been named. By the end of the 1980s, the pioneering community founded by Brilliant and Brand was attracting thousands of early adopters, from former commune-dwellers to students to technologists to businesspeople to fans of the Grateful Dead, all participating in online conferences with other Well-beings (as they called themselves) on myriad topics. This fascinating anecdotal history unfolds their story. It is filled with memorable personalities and their early electronic postings, which are quoted as they were originally transmitted, as it analyzes the many reasons for the Well's legendary success, from its beginnings less than two decades ago up to the present day, including its recent purchase by salon.com.
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July 22, 2017 | Edited by Mek | adding subject: In library |
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