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The WELL (The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) is one of the oldest virtual communities in continuous operation. A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as Newsletters It currently has about 4,000 members. It is best known for its Internet forums, but also provides email, shell accounts, and web pages. An, or message board, is a Bulletin board system in the form of a discussion site A shell account is a personal account that gives a user access to a Unix shell on a remote server usually accessed through SSH (and historically Telnet The discussion and topics on the WELL range from the deeply serious to the generally silly, depending on the nature and interests of the participants.

Contents

History

The WELL was started by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in 1985, and the name is partially a reference to some of Brand's earlier projects, including the Whole Earth Catalog. Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938 in Rockford Illinois) is an Author, editor, and creator of The Whole Earth Catalog Dr Lawrence "Larry" Brilliant is a physician epidemiologist, technologist author and philanthropist and the director of Google 's philanthropic arm The Whole Earth Catalog was an American Counterculture catalog that granted "Access to Tools" published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and The WELL began as a dial-up bulletin board system (BBS), became one of the original dial-up ISPs in the early 1990s when commercial traffic was first allowed, and changed into its current form as the Internet and web technology evolved. A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a Computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to An Internet service provider ( ISP, also called Internet access provider or IAP) is a company which primarily offers their customers access to the Internet Its original management team—Matthew McClure, soon joined by Cliff Figallo and John Coate—collaborated with its early users to foster a sense of virtual community. From 1994 to 1999 the WELL was owned by Bruce Katz, founder of Rockport, a manufacturer of walking shoes. Since April 1999 it has been owned by Salon.com, several of whose founders such as Scott Rosenberg had previously been regular participants there. Saloncom, part of Salon Media Group ( often just called Salon, is an online Scott Rosenberg is an American journalist editor blogger and non-fiction author Gail Ann Williams was hired by Figallo in 1991, and has continued in management roles into the current era. Gail Ann Williams (born in Berkeley California) has been the director of The WELL since 1998

Notable items in WELL history include being the forum through which John Perry Barlow, John Gilmore, and Mitch Kapor, the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, met. John Perry Barlow (born October 3, 1947) is an American Poet, Essayist, retired Wyoming cattle rancher political John Gilmore is one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Cypherpunks mailing list and Cygnus Solutions. Mitchell David Kapor (born November 1, 1950) is the founder of Lotus Development Corporation and the designer of Lotus 1-2-3, the " The Electronic Frontier Foundation ( EFF) is an international non-profit advocacy and legal organization based in the United States with the stated purpose of being dedicated Howard Rheingold, an early and very active member, was inspired to write his book The Virtual Community by his experience on the WELL. Howard Rheingold (born July 7, 1947) is a critic and writer his specialties are on the cultural social and political implications of modern communication media such The Virtual Community is a 1993 book about virtual communities by Howard Rheingold, a member of the early network system The Well. Craig Newmark started his original Craigslist mailings there. Craig Alexander Newmark (born 6 December 1952 in Morristown New Jersey) is an Internet entrepreneur best known for being the founder of the Craigslist is a central network of online communities featuring free online classified advertisements – with jobs internships housing personals, erotic The WELL was a major online meeting place for fans of the Grateful Dead, especially those who followed the band from concert to concert, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The WELL also played a role in the book Takedown about the pursuit and capture of Kevin Mitnick. Kevin David Mitnick (born August 6, 1963) is a computer security consultant who was a controversial Computer hacker in the late 20th century Founded in Sausalito, California, the service is now based in San Francisco. Sausalito (from Spanish: sauzalito "small willow grove" from sauce "willow" + collective derivative -al meaning "place California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city

In August 2005 Salon Media Group announced that it was looking for a buyer for the WELL, in order to concentrate on other business lines. Saloncom, part of Salon Media Group ( often just called Salon, is an online In November 2006, a press release of The WELL said, "As Salon has not found a suitable purchaser, it has determined that it is currently in the best interest of the company to retain this business and has therefore suspended all efforts to sell The WELL. "[1]

Topics of discussion

The WELL is divided into general subject areas known as conferences. These conferences reflect member interests, and include arts, health, business, regions, hobbies, spirituality, music, politics, games, software and many more.

Within conferences, members open separate conversational threads called topics for specific items of interest. For example, the Media conference has (or had) topics devoted to the New York Times, media ethics, and the Luann comic strip. Luann is a syndicated Comic strip, distributed in Newspapers by United Features Syndicate since March 17 1985 Luann is written An example of a local conference is the one on San Francisco, which has topics on restaurants, the city government, and neighborhood news.

"Public" conferences are open to all members, while "private" conferences are restricted to a list of users controlled by the conference hosts, called the ulist. Some "featured private" or "private independent" conferences (such as "Women on the WELL" and "Recovery") are listed in the WELL's directory, but are access restricted for privacy or membership-restriction reasons. Members may request admission to such conferences. There are also a large number of unlisted secret private conferences. The names of these conferences are public, but the contents, hosts, and members are restricted to members of a particular conference. Membership in private conferences is by invitation. WELL members may open their own new public or private independent conferences.

Policy and governance

The directors of The WELL have included Matthew McClure and Cliff Figallo, both veterans of the 1970s commune called The Farm, and since 1998, Gail Ann Williams, previously known as one of the principals in the political satire group the Plutonium Players. The Farm is an Intentional community in southeastern Lewis County Tennessee, near the community of Summertown, Tennessee, based on principles Gail Ann Williams (born in Berkeley California) has been the director of The WELL since 1998 Collaboration, counterpoint and irreverence are respected values in the WELL community, nurtured by these unusual leaders over two decades.

The community forums, known as Conferences, are supervised by conference hosts who guide conversations and may enforce conference rules on civility and/or appropriateness. Initially all hosts were selected by staff members. In 1995, Gail Williams changed the policies to enable user-created forums. Gail Ann Williams (born in Berkeley California) has been the director of The WELL since 1998 Participants at the Complete membership level can create their own independent personal conferences—either viewable by any WELL member or privately viewable by those members on a restricted membership list—on any subject they please with any rules they like.

Overall support and supervision of the conferencing services is handled by several staff members, often referred to collectively as confteam, the name of the UNIX user account used by staff for conference maintenance. They have more system operational powers than conference hosts, along with the additional social authority of selecting featured conference hosts and (rarely) closing accounts for abuse.

WELL members use a consistent login name when posting messages, and a non-fixed pseudonym field alongside it. A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) The pseudonym (or pseud in WELL parlance) defaults to the user's real name, but can be changed at will and so often reflects a quotation from another user, or is an in-joke, or may be left blank. A personal name is the Proper name identifying an individual Person. The user's real name can be easily looked-up using their login name. WELL members are not anonymous.

There is a time-honored double meaning to the WELL slogan coined by Stewart Brand. "You Own Your Own Words" or ("YOYOW"), members have both the rights to their posted words and responsibility for those words, too. YOYOW is a storied example of Internet Slang, an acronymn for a phrase coined by Stewart Brand when he launched The WELL. (Members can also delete their posts at any time, but a placeholder indicates the former location and author of an erased or scribbled post, as well as who scribbled it. )

Joining and reading

WELL membership is available to almost anyone, but requires a paid subscription and use of one's real name. Most postings on the WELL can be read only by members; however, there are some external member web sites, and a few publicly readable conferences:

Forums can be read using a regular browser or by logging into a command-line UNIX system via telnet or secure shell and using a classic text-based interface called PicoSpan. Telnet ( Tel ecommunication net work is a Network protocol used on the Internet or local area network (LAN connections Secure Shell or SSH is a Network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a Secure channel between two networked devices

Journalists on The WELL

The WELL was frequently mentioned in the media in the 1980s and 1990s, probably disproportionately to the number of users it had relative to other online systems. This has diminished but not disappeared in recent years, with other online communities becoming commonplace. This early visibility was largely the result of the early policy of providing free — comped — accounts for interesting journalists and other select members of the media. As a result, for many journalists it was their first experience of online systems and, later, the Internet, even though other systems existed. Although accounts are now seldom provided for free to journalists, there are still a sizable number on The WELL; for example columnist Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle, Wendy M. Grossman of The Inquirer, and critic Andy Klein of Los Angeles CityBeat. John Carroll is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, beginning in 1982 The San Francisco Chronicle was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H Wendy M Grossman (born New York City January 26, 1954) is a journalist, Blogger and folksinger. The Inquirer is a British technology tabloid website founded by Mike Magee after his departure from The Register (of which

The WELL also received numerous awards in the 1980s and 1990s, including a Webby Award for online community in 1998, and an EFF Pioneer Award in 1994. The EFF Pioneer Award is an annual Prize for people who have made significant contributions to the empowerment of individuals in using computers

The WELL in the news

In March 2007, the WELL was noted for refusing membership to Kevin Mitnick, and refunding his membership fee. Kevin David Mitnick (born August 6, 1963) is a computer security consultant who was a controversial Computer hacker in the late 20th century [1][2]

Publications about The WELL

(1994) Perennial ISBN 0-06-097643-8 (Hardcover) — ISBN 0-262-68121-8 (2000 revised paperback edition)
(1997) Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-80175-2 (Hardcover) — ISBN 0-684-83873-7 (Paperback)
(2001) Carroll & Graf Publishers ISBN 0-7867-0846-8
Katie Hafner's book, expanded from a Wired Magazine article, chronicles the odd birth, growing pains, and interpersonal dynamics that make The WELL the unusual, perhaps unique, online community that it is. Howard Rheingold (born July 7, 1947) is a critic and writer his specialties are on the cultural social and political implications of modern communication media such The Virtual Community is a 1993 book about virtual communities by Howard Rheingold, a member of the early network system The Well. John Seabrook is an American Journalist who writes about technology and popular culture Simon & Schuster Inc, a division of CBS Corporation, is a Publisher founded in New York in 1924 by Richard L Katie Hafner is a Journalist who writes books and articles about Technology and society
(2006) University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-81741-5
"When the Counterculture met the New Economy: The WELL and the Origins of Virtual Community", Technology and Culture, Vol. Fred Turner is an Assistant Professor at Stanford University in the Communication Department and the acclaimed author of two books From Counterculture to Cyberculture The University of Chicago Press is the largest University press in the United States 46, No. 3 (July, 2005), pp. 485–512.

See also

References

  1. ^ The WELL (November 14, 2006). Stewart Brand (born December 14, 1938 in Rockford Illinois) is an Author, editor, and creator of The Whole Earth Catalog William H Calvin PhD (born 30 April 1939 is a Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle. CIX (Originally Compulink Information eXchange) was one of the earliest British Internet Service Providers. Cyberia is a book by Douglas Rushkoff, published in 1994. The book discusses many different ideas revolving around technology drugs and subcultures Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno (born 15 May 1948 commonly known as Brian Eno (ˈiːnoʊ is an English Musician, producer Michael Gruber (born October 1, 1940 in Brooklyn) is an author living in Seattle Washington. This article refers to the founding executive editor of Wired magazine Peter Ludlow ( January 16, 1957) who also writes under the name Urizenus Sklar, is a professor of philosophy at the Northwestern University Tom Mandel ( 1946 - April 6, 1995) was born in Chicago Illinois He served in the United States Marine Corps in the Vietnam War Howard Rheingold (born July 7, 1947) is a critic and writer his specialties are on the cultural social and political implications of modern communication media such Douglas Rushkoff (born 18 February 1961) is a New York -based writer columnist and lecturer on technology John Seabrook is an American Journalist who writes about technology and popular culture The Whole Earth Catalog was an American Counterculture catalog that granted "Access to Tools" published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and Gail Ann Williams (born in Berkeley California) has been the director of The WELL since 1998 Declan McCullagh is an American Journalist and columnist for CNET 's news Events 1533 - Conquistadors from Spain under the leadership of Francisco Pizarro arrive in Cajamarca, Inca Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. "The Well to Stay With Salon". Press release. A news release, media release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded Communication directed at members of the News Retrieved on 2007-11-08. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1519 - Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with great a Celebration

External links

Katie Hafner is a Journalist who writes books and articles about Technology and society
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