Here are some links that we’ll take a look at during today’s class. After our class discussion, you can write your reading and lecture summary, and post it as a comment made to this blog post.
Whole Earth Catalog, Fall 1968
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Where The Counterculture Met The New Economy by Fred Turner.
The article, Where The Counterculture Met The New Economy by Fred Turner, examines the history of the system on which the term virtual community was first used, the Whole Earth Lectronic Link (or WELL), and shows that as both an idea and a social formation, virtual community, in fact, came out at the interchange of three things: the appearance of public computer networks, the grit of countercultural social ideals from the 1960s, and a shift toward networked forms of economic activity. In the 1960s, Stewart Brand came up with the idea for the âWhole Earth Catalogâ. This was a book, but it contained much more because it was also a how-to manual, an encyclopedia, a literary review, an opinionated life guide and a collection of readerâs recommendations and reviews of everything. The idea of a network forum meshed well with the countercultural ideals regarding the relationship of technology to social life. In the 1960s college students formed social movements. The first came out of the struggles for civil rights in the Deep South and the Free Speech Movement. They called themselves the New Left. The second emerged from several things such as: the cold war, Zen Buddhism, action painting and psychedelic drugs, and they simply called themselves âthe countercultureâ.
The difference between them was that the New Left sought to change the world through politics where the counterculture, wanted to focus on changing the awareness of individuals. The counterculture group was referred to as the âNew Communalistsâ. This society wanted to achieve the feeling of collectivity, and this took place through small scale technologies, such as stereos and theatrical light kits, deployed at rock concerts and alternative festivals. In the process of reviewing products and writing to one another, the readers of the Catalog helped it to become a representation of the network of individuals and institutions linked in its pages, a network forum so to speak. Even as counter-culturalists rebelled against the echelons of government, big business, and formal education, they helped construct an informational representation of the larger community to which they belonged. Though they were located in different parts of the country, they could come together as a collective voice in print. They could be united as a tribe, within an information medium, and they could use that medium as a tool to link them to like-minded individuals and to the natural world. Steward Brand did bring two of its essential features to the project: a rich mix of technical, countercultural, and journalistic communities, and a management mindset copied from a blend of countercultural politics and systems theory. Well known journalists were offered a free account on the system, and this greatly increased the WELLâs impact on the public. One of the strengths of the WELL lay in the fact that was possible to exchange smaller, time sensitive pieces of information, ranging from data on a not-yet-announced technology to a bit of gossip about the computer or magazine industries. Also, for many, the WELL could be used to get information, while it was not a formal database, the capacity of information and experts was so big that the WELL functioned as a real time encyclopedia. There was one other advantage that contributors of the WELL experienced. If a contributor managed to stand out on the WELL, this could be noticed by an employer, and one could be offered a job. Such reputation work ultimately led to a number of collaborations that would have a substantial impact on the early culture of the public Internet, including the founding of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Salon, and even Wired
In the article âWhere the Counterculture Met The New Economy by Fred Turnerâ by Fred Turner, Turner begins by discussing the Whole Earth Lectronic Link, also known as WELL, and with this he discuss how WELL was a virtually community. It was a text only environment which one can speak to others and form relationships or connections. One can compare this to social media in todayâs world, for example Facebook, snapchat or Instagram. These three platforms are used by individuals from around the world and serves as a place where people can make connections and develop relationships with one another. It shows that where most see technology as isolating it can actually unify us together. Computer networks like WELL allowed us to ârecapture the sense of cooperative spirit that so many people seemed to lose when we gained all this technology.â In the isolation of the cyber space we can collectively come together and cooperate in discussions and such. Turner then discusses the Whole Earth catalog which was created in 1968. This catalog inside had divisions of knowledge, communications, community and learning. It made information easier to access. The first issue of the catalog had only 60 pages and consisted of reviews of hand tools, books and magazines. I later blew up and became a key feature of the digital world. The catalog became sort of a network for its readers. The point of Turnerâs article is to keep the idea of collectivity through technology prominent. Technology does not separate us but rather bring us together.
In the article âWhere The Counterculture Met The New Economyâ by Fred Turner tells us the history of virtual communications and community. Firstly it developed during the 1960s. It was a book that contained so much information that it ranged from things from how to do this or an encyclopedia. However as time went we started to form technologies that could replace this book and the social form of doing things. When we look at the modern day we look at how text only environments were all developed which was to speak to each other and have a relationships with one another. This all changed when we got more advanced into technology. For example the applications we use to communicate tells us 1000 words for example when we use things like Twitter we get so much data and we are able to build a type of relationship with others. You can tweet how you feel or include a picture and that tells a lot of information. For a famous person people may retweet it to spread the word or even like it. Eventually the hashtags you use could blow it up. Things like this could lead to the community isolating one person for a negative or unifying us and making human relationships stronger. The author explains how books and other things had a huge selections of information, but with the computer now these type of things get notable via the websites that they are on. Technology is a key function in our society and itâs used today everyday by every.
In the article âWhere the Counterculture Met the New Economy: The WELL and the Origins of Virtual Communityâ by Fred Turner talks about how Whole Earth Lectron Link or the acronym WELL a text-based system affects social relationships. In this article a journalist named Howard Rheingold is talked about and how WELL lead him to form social relationships with friends and meet different people over a strict text network. With this network people are able to cooperate with one another. The âWhole Earth Catalogâ created by Stewart Brand was a book that evaluated an array of different technologies. The catalog was a way for people to get an understanding of a specific book, hand tool, or magazine. The counterculture is a group of people thatâs believed in small technological advancements. The catalog majorly influenced WELL by forming a relationship between information, technology, and different communities. The combination of WELL and the catalog allowed people to communicate through this social network. WELL in its own way formed a special type of community. It didnât just help build relationships nut helped with economics. The catalog made its money not by selling products that were advertised in the book but selling the reviews and suggestions that were offered. When people read the catalog they would tell someone else and the popularity grew. WELL was a way to form a relationship between technology and social relationships. By allowing people to communicate through this forum people were able to learn about technology and interact with others.
In the article âWhere the Counterculture Met the New Economyâ by Fred Turner, the first thing that is mentioned is the Whole Earth âLectronic Link. WELL was a new form of technology that was brought to light by journalist, Howard Rheingold. This new technology was the first form of virtual community, some may even say it was the first form of social media. WELL allowed Rheingold to âconverse with friends and colleagues, met new people, and over time built up relationships of startling intimacy.â In the summer of 1964 a group called the Merry Pranksters emerged, and they took road trips in a psychedelic painted school bus, and organizing parties and gave out LSD. Stewart Brand, a former Merry Prankster, inherited a hundred thousand dollars in stocks. He had a dream where he was imagining his friends “starting their own civilization hither and yon in the stick.â This led him to start thinking about the âAccess Mobileâ, something that would allow him to get advice on sale items, such as books, magazines, camping gear and more. Thus the Whole World Catalog was created. The catalog was composed of 61 pages, of stuff ranging from reviews of hand tools to community to learning. The Whole World Catalog established a relationship between information technology, economic activity, and alternative forms of community, and has become a key feature of the digital world. However the catalog didnât actually sell the items that they were promoting. It gave the price of the item and directed people where to go and buy it. These two new pieces of technology allowed people to form relationships with other people.
In Fred Turnerâs âWhere the Counterculture Met the New Economyâ he discusses the origins of the virtual community by introducing the reader to the WELL. The WELL (Whole Earth âLectronic Link) was a dial-up bulletin-board system started by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in the 1980âs. Brand, a former member of the Merry Pranksters (a group of intellectuals noted for community building, and LSD inspirede self-exploration), and Larry Brilliant, who knew Brand from their days at Woodstock, used the concept of Brandâs âWhole Earth Catalogâ to develop the WELL. The âWhole Earth Catalogâ provided its readers with reviews about its contents, and information on how to go about getting them. With these things in mind, they created the WELL, a text based platform that became a place for users to connect online in an online community. In the same vein as the âWhole Earth Catalogâ, the WELL also acted as a network forum, a space where a wide variety of people came together in this virtual community where the concepts of boundary object and trading zone could be observed. Rheingold, author of âThe Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontierâ, was the first to introduce the term virtual community to the public. Rheingold says that networks like the well helped users recapture a cooperative, community building spirit that had been lost with the introduction and acceptance of technology into our everyday lives. Although written just twenty-five years ago, the concept of online community building could be revisited, in the United States especially, considering that technology is being used as a divisive tool instead of one to bring us closer together, the way that Brand, Brilliant, and Rheingold had in mind.