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In the early years of my adventures and discoveries
in the neon-lit world of the Internet, I had come across a fascinating
website with a dedicated online community. It was called The Well and
I was enthralled by its nomenclature. Years later when I went back to
The Well last week, I was elated to see it not only alive and kicking
but absolutely throbbing with potential. Today, it has built on its
early foundation and has become an iconic, if not a cult site that is
devoted to intelligent conversation on the web. In its pit, lie communities
of writers, thinkers, mavericks, digiterati and artistic creatures
with online avatars. Animated conversations range from jazz
to java and from gardening to Generation X.
Interestingly, The Well predates the World Wide Web. It was founded
in April 1985 by Whole Earth Catalog publisher, Stewart Brand and technologist
Larry Brilliant. In 1994, the founder of Rockport Shoes, Bruce Katz,
bought The Well and called it “a community of free minds”.
It was under Katz’s exemplary mentoring that The Well’s
adaptation to the web was complete. In 1999, Salon.com
acquired The Well. Today, it thrives as a part of this award-winning
literary website.
The Well is an extraordinary ‘word palace’ with hundreds
of topics of interest, and as a pioneering online community, it is a
major success story. One of the most engaging books on the subject,
written by Katie Hafner, is The Well: A Story of Love, Death and
Real Life in the Seminal Online Community. Hafner, a reporter for
the New York Times based in Berkeley, was a contributing editor at Newsweek
in 1995 when Wired editors Kevin Kelly and Martha Baer assigned her
to write a history of the Well. She published an insider’s account
in a classic Wired magazine cover story in 1997. Four years
later, it became a book. How it got to that point is a tale of passion
for ideas that rivals the material in the book.
The best way to sample the on-goings at The Well is to be a member.
But if you’d like to see what’s happening, you can register
free of cost at www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/index.html
and take a look at the conferences there. An example of a typical Well
interaction with a distinct style is “The nightmarish process
of writing.” Here is how one of the postings goes: “I'd
never given much thought to writing fiction, until someone's mention
of the view of Venus from Mercury got me started. (Beginning with the
question what someone would be doing on Mercury to witness that view
in the first place…)”
Wondering how you can be a part of this intelligent online community?
Simple. Log on to www.well.com.
There are two membership plans at $10/month or $15/month. Pretty expensive
by Indian standards, but trust me, it’s worth it. It is indeed
very heartening to see that 18 years have elapsed and The Well is still
brimming with loyal members. If you’re looking for the world’s
most influential online community, now you know where to look. Welcome
to The Well.
Carry on surfing!
strehan@hindustantimes.com
(11th October 2003)
