The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link (or The WELL) is one of the oldest virtual communities still online. It currently has about 4000 members. It is most well-known for its Internet forums, but also provides email, shell accounts, and web pages. The discussion and topics on the WELL range from the serious to the generally silly, depending on the nature and interests of the participants.

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; see the Whole Earth Catalog. The WELL began as a dial-up BBS, and changed into its current form as the Internet and web technology evolved. It is currently owned by Salon.com, whose founders were regular participants there and who acquired it in April 1999.

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 and many, many more. Within conferences, members open separate conversational threads called topics for specific items of interest. For example, the Media conference might have separate active topics devoted to the New York Times, media ethics, and the Luann comic strip; the Travel conference on Paris, memorable dining abroad, or travel writing; the Christianity conference on the Catholic Church, the writings of C.S. Lewis, or church architecture; and the San Francisco conference on restaurants, the city government, and neighborhood news.

Policy and Governance

Conferences are supervised by conference hosts (approved by the WELL conferencing staff), who guide conversations and enforce conference rules on civility and/or appropriateness. Participants at the Complete membership level can create their own "independent" personal conferences -- publicly viewable by any WELL member or privately viewable by restricted membership -- on any subject they please with any rules they like.

WELL members may use pseudonyms when posting messages, but the real name of any post's author can easily be determined. This lack of anonymity gives a double meaning to the WELL principle, "You Own Your Own Words" ("YOYOW"): members have both the right to control distribution of their writings and responsibility for what they write. (Members can also erase their posts at any time, but a placeholder indicates the former location and author of an erased post.)

Dipping into the WELL

WELL membership is available to anyone, but requires a subscription. Most postings on the WELL can be read only by members; however, there are a few publically readable conferences: Interview (featuring online conversations with authors such as Neil Gaiman, Bruce Sterling, and Farai Chideya ), Preview (a sampler of WELL postings), and Grateful Dead Songs.

Katie Hafner's book, The WELL: A Story of Love, Death and Real Life in the Seminal Online Community (ISBN 0786708468), based on 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.

External links

• The WELL
  • Inkwell.vue: The WELL's Interview conference
  • Pre.vue: The WELL's Preview conference
• Wired magazine: "The Epic Saga of the WELL"
• C|net News.com: "The WELL celebrates 20th birthday"
• Net Wars at The Inquirer: "You own your own 20th anniversary"