Rheingold &The Well

“The Well, this communal dwelling, had begun in the spring of 1985 as a VAX computer and a rack of modems in a ramshackle set of offices in Sausalito, California. When Mandel had logged on for the first time that summer, there were only a few dozen people online with him. For a long while The Well was an intimate gathering, a place where nearly everyone held a stake in nearly every discussion that arose. It was also a remote, hidden place: the larger world was for the most part still ignorant of the alchemy that could result from pairing a computer and a modem. But by the time Mandel died, 10 years later, The Well had grown into a veritable Saint Mark's Square, with thousands of postings every day on topics ranging from the circumcision of newborns to the Gulf War” says journalist Katie Hafner (1997).

 

For Howard Rheingold The Well has been an everyday part of his life. As he (Rheingold, 1993) describes: “Since the summer of 1985, for an average of two hours a day, seven days a week, I've been plugging my personal computer into my telephone and making contact with the WELL”.

 

But what is the Well for him? “Finding the WELL was like discovering a cozy little world that had been flourishing without me, hidden within the walls of my house; an entire cast of characters welcomed me to the troupe with great merriment as soon as I found the secret door. Like others who fell into the WELL, I soon discovered that I was audience, performer, and scriptwriter, along with my companions, in an ongoing improvisation. A full-scale subculture was growing on the other side of my telephone jack, and they invited me to help create something new”.

Done