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Katie Hafner

The Well: A Story of Love, Death & Real Life in the Seminal Online Community Hardcover – April 1, 2001

by Katie Hafner (Author)

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Presents the dramatic story of the pioneering virtual community that changed the way the world communicates, conceived in 1984, and implemented during the end of the 1980s, and available to "Well-beings" who participated in on-line discussions on a myriad of topics.

Print length

208 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Carroll & Graf Pub
Publication date

April 1, 2001
Dimensions

5.75 x 0.75 x 7.5 inches
ISBN-10

0786708468
ISBN-13

978-0786708468
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Katie Hafner
306
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Anna Wiener
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The term "online community" has been sucked dry of meaning in recent years, but there was a time when it connoted exciting possibilities and radical change. One early experiment, the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), united smart, independent, left-leaning folks from all over as early as 1984, and still lives and breathes 17 years later. Journalist and long-time member Katie Hafner tells the story of its early days in The Well: A Story of Love, Death and Real Life in the Seminal Online Community.

Though the title isn't strictly accurate--there were comparatively primitive online communities long before 1984--the tale is well told and compelling. Started by visionary Stewart Brand and do-gooder Larry Brilliant, the dialup BBS offered a wide-open space for communication, developing relationships, and, inevitably, conflicts. Spicing up her story with excerpts from online posts, interviews with participants, and sometimes sordid details of WELL-being, Hafner shows that not all online communities are the same.

Though the WELL's social and business problems are legion--eventually it was bought by Salon.com--the participants and administrators consistently showed intelligence and determination, essential qualities for homesteading pioneers. Though the book can't begin to address big questions about virtual social environments (Do they help or hinder users' lives? Are they as deeply satisfying as traditional relationships? What makes them so popular?), it does help the reader begin to address them personally. That individual determination, aided by discussion with others, is the WELL's greatest legacy. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

If this slim volume about a model online community is any indication, there's no end in sight to accounts of the trailblazers of the Internet revolution, despite the recent fits in the market. Standing for Whole Earth `Lectronic Link, the Well was founded in 1984 by two visionary men: Stewart Brand and the aptly named Larry Brilliant. Brand was the legendary founder of the holistic do-it-yourself guide The Whole Earth Catalog, who contributed space in Sausalito, Calif., to the project, while Brilliant was a millionaire philanthropist who put up the software and hardware. They went online in 1985 with the idea of creating a virtual, latter-day salon rather than just another electronic bulletin board. Word of mouth spread quickly and soon the Well developed a distinctly Bay Area, post-hippie ambience that proved intensely magnetic to its members. Although membership peaked at only around 10,000, the Well's influence extended well beyond its members (another book could be written on the failed craze to build Well-like online communities throughout the Web). Hafner spices up the not-always dramatic story of the Well's business troubles with lengthy examples of the sort of literate, leftist, free-range discussions that were its bread and butter. Avoiding hyperbole, her style reflects her ease with a topic she's covered for the New York Times and in such respected books as Cyberpunk and Where Wizards Stay Up Late, though some readers may feel she skims too quickly over some dramatic stories about the love, rage and tears that the Well Beings (as they called themselves) poured into their keyboards over the years.

From Library Journal

Hafner (Where Wizards Stay Up Late) here provides an anecdotal history of The Well, the legendary San Francisco-based online community that has influenced a number of aspiring Internet successors. The book centers around the on- and offline romance between two of The Well's members, "Mandel" and "Nana," describing Mandel's disturbing inability to draw the line between public and private and his resulting actions which threatened the fabric of the community itself. Although the community's history and the interplay between Mandel, Nana, and other members is interesting in itself, the third-person account is less compelling than a first-person retelling might have been. Recommended for public libraries where books on online communities are popular or those that do not already own titles such as the recently revised edition of Howard Rheingold's Virtual Community (MIT, 2000), which covers the history of The Well and its successors more comprehensively. [See also Stacy Horn's Cyberville, LJ 12/97, which discusses Echo, the New York-based counterpart to The Well. Ed.] Rachel Singer Gordon, Franklin Park P.L., I.
- Rachel Singer Gordon, Franklin Park P.L., IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The same year that AOL went online-- 1984--so did the Well. Modeled after French literary salons, the Well was to become a meeting place where intellectual minds could discuss and debate ideas. Several hundred others soon joined the few original members, and the California-based service attracted callers from as far away as Texas and New York. As callers posted messages and interacted, they came to know each other intimately, forming perhaps the first online community. We watch as friendships and relationships form and break apart, and we share the Well Beings' joy as one man is reunited with his biological mother, and their sorrow as one of the more visible members succumbs to cancer. Hafner does an excellent job of portraying a phenomenon difficult to believe if one has never been part of such a group, vividly illustrating the dynamics and ethos of the Well community and making real for the reader a rare experience that will never be duplicated in the newsgroups and chat rooms of the Internet. Gavin Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Carroll & Graf Pub (April 1, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0786708468
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0786708468
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 7.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,322,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #859 in Computing Industry History
- #5,248 in History of Technology
- #9,257 in Internet & Telecommunications

Customer Reviews:
7 ratings

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Katie Hafner

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Katie Hafner was born in Rochester, New York, and has lived in more cities, towns and hamlets than she cares to count. She started writing about technology in 1983, the year the Apple Lisa was introduced. For nearly a decade, she wrote about technology for the The New York Times's Circuits section. She currently writes on healthcare topics for the paper's Science section.

She has also written for Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Esquire, Wired, The New Republic, the Huffington Post and O Magazine. Her sixth book, Mother Daughter Me, a memoir, was published by Random House in July 2013. Her first novel, The Boys, is due out from Spiegel & Grau in July 2022.

Hafner is host and co-executive producer of the podcasts Lost Women of Science and Our Mothers Ourselves. (Photo credit: Christopher Michel)

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A Helpful Case History of an Early On-Line Community

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2001

Before there was the Web, there was on-line conferencing. Stewart Brand (originator of The Whole Earth Catalog) and Larry Brilliant (the philanthropic doctor who underwrote the enterprise and orginally conceived of it) combined to develop the Whole Earth 'Lectric Link (thus, WELL). This was a time-sharing service offered on a VAX computer with a monthly membership charge and hourly on-line fees as well. As such, it was one of the first attempts to build a virtual community and create a business at the same time. The book recounts the optimistic origins of the service, the problems it experienced, and its decline in the days of free chat rooms. There do seem to be a number of important lessons here for those who want to build businesses involving on-line communities.
I have never read or participated in the Well (in fact, I had never heard of it until I picked up this book). I am astonished that people would pay $8 a month and $2 an hour in the 1980s to basically put posts on a bulletin board. The group had a cachet in the Bay area. It was "smart and left-leaning without being self-consciously politically correct, [and] it had become something of a club." It had been designed to evolve, and that was its strength. Each person was responsible for their own words, discussions were moderated, and posters could also erase what they had written. Predictably, sex was the first topic of a discussion.
The book focuses around one very active participant, Tom Mandel, a futurist at SRI. Mr. Mandel conducted his life very publicly on the Well, and there are more ups and downs than in most soap operas. I won't steal the book's thunder, but you will find him to have been a most unique individual.
I especially enjoyed hearing about the community's problems, such as when people began to try to hurt the community.
The community's successes were of interest as well. Clearly, the Well benefited from having subscribers meet one another in person. That deepened the connections in a way that typing fast for hours could not have done.
The book also suggests that those who spent the most time there were shy, but felt comfortable letting it all hang out electronically. That is now a well-known phenomenon. I can certainly attest to that, as someone who has little to say about a particular book in person but likes to write long book reviews.
The author includes long sections from actual posts, to give you a feel for the interaction. I didn't particular enjoy reading these, but found them helpful.
Ms. Hafner was a long-time participant, mostly as an observer. The Well provided free subscriptions to journalists from the beginning.
The descriptions of trying to turn this into a long-term business are very interesting. Clearly, those who manage and own such a business need to be comfortable with as well as be part of the very community they serve. Any dissonance from executives or owners towards the community will clearly be harmful.
I also came away with a personal opinion that on-line communities will probably rise and fall quite often, much like physical communities do. I suspect that these will not be the basis of long-term businesses. The connections are too fleeting, and the temptations to go on to something better are too great.
After you read this book, think about how well you communicate your most important thoughts. Who knows them? Who should know them? What reactions would you enjoy having to those thoughts? What feedback do you need? Where can you get it?
Avoid becoming addicted to on-line activities! There's a real world still out there waiting for you.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Calton Bolick

What The Well is about

Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2001

First, I should note that I'm a long-time Well member (albeit mostly as an observer, not an active participant) which may color my perceptions. Nevertheless, I tried to read this more-or-less objectively, as a book I might give to friends that would convey exactly why it is that I am a member.
Well, it passes that test easily: in its relatively brief length, "The Well" succinctly and sensitively chronicles the odd birth, growing pains, and interpersonal dynamics that make The Well the unique online community that it is.
I'm buying copies for my ex-girlfriend, who complained that I spent too much time at the computer, and for a friend who, years ago, acidly commented, "Why that's amazing, you've gone a whole thirty minutes without mentioning The Well!"
Maybe this book can explain the things I couldn't. Highly recomended for those who want to understand the possiblities of virtual communities.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Robert W. Fuller

A Little Book about Big Things (like Life and Death)

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2001

I finished the book with a sad, sober feeling. Yes, the word "death" absolutely belongs in the title. The book is about life and death. It's one of those little books that appears to be about something concrete and specific, and is in fact evocative of much deeper issues. I was reminded of what I experienced as the sometimes toxic atmosphere on The Well by the posts in the book, and by the accounts of some of the principal players. As well as the beatific spirits who made the whole thing run behind the scenes. The influence of the Farm -- that was new to me -- but it explains a lot.
Will people realize that this is an emotional story, a sad sobering story of dreams fulfilled, frustrated, and failed? That is what got me about it. It contains more pathos than many novels whose goal is to move readers. Going in, I took the subtitle as ironic, like the "Fear and Loathing" title of the gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson, but it is literal and straight. The very first page sets the tone and the book is true to that. The Well wasn't my way to the Internet, but the 17-year arc of the story made me feel my mortality.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Heath Row

Reading the book made me want to log in

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2007

It's a quick read, but it tells a long story. The Well is one of the earliest and longest-running online communities, and I've been a member for more than 10 years. Hafner's writing reads like much of the writing in the Well: personal, insightful, and very human. She looks at the evolution of the business, as well as some of the highlights -- and low points -- of the relationships among members. Even the darkest of days and most difficult situations is addressed with grace and empathy. Of interest to members, online historians, and community organizations everywhere. An important chapter in the development of the Net!

One person found this helpful

Helpful

rachel

Familiar tales for any veteran of online forums

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2002

I liked this book. I've been there on well.com now and then, and it's true that the site was influential in forming the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other key initiatives in protecting the freedoms of the 'net. But the book is cool because even though Hafner says the Well is historic and unique, it's more like a very strong example of something we've all seen.
There's a soap opera pleasure to the conflicts in the book.
The Well's traditional attention to "process" can get annoying, but over all it's not so bad that any sanction against a user is heavily debated, unlike on some boards. You'll recognize the personalities and see the problems of trying to attract a wide range of smart outspoken people who can be jerks at times. You've seen this all before somewhere, and not just on the web.
Keeping a group at all cohesive when it is made of hundreds of strong personalities is classic challenge. The book is ultimately more about the problems of being in groups and communities, and of being human.

One person found this helpful

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