{"id":46062,"date":"2025-08-05T19:41:29","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/46062\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T19:41:29","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T19:41:29","slug":"how-the-grateful-dead-built-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/46062\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Grateful Dead built the internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

Though there were never more than 5<\/a>,000 or so users <\/a>of the Well at its peak<\/a>, its coverage<\/a>\u00a0and innovators of the day and its starring role in the creation of the EFF gave it an outsized reputation compared to more popular mainstream platforms like CompuServe and Prodigy. “Being on The Well kept me six months ahead of other people about what was actually happening on the internet,” said tech executive Jim Rutt in a 2022 interview<\/a>. It was a vital incubator for ideas and movements in computing, communications and social change.<\/p>\n

But as it grew, Well faced some difficulties in governance, as Rheingold recalled, thanks to its libertarian free-speech ethos. “There was no police. It was consensus, which meant that in order to be sanctioned or to even be thrown out for bad behaviour, it required people on the Well to argue about it endlessly. I mean, thousands of posts.” Lessons about moderation were learned, such as \u2013 for Rheingold \u2013 the vital importance of moderators being more like hosts at a party, becoming intensely proactive about what content to allow and promote. “Moderators are filters and sensors,” he said, whereas hosts “greet people at the door, introduce them to each other, break up the fights.”<\/p>\n

As for the Well, it subsequently came under the ownership of a variety of different companies, including Salon magazine, which acquired it in 1999<\/a>. And it’s still around today, home to a slowly dwindling but loyal group of users, many of whom have been on the Well for almost 40 years, says Gans. He reveals that discussions are beginning on how best to archive and sunset the platform at some point in the future, preserving it for future generations to look back on.<\/p>\n

Looking back at the history of virtual communities and social media since the Well’s heyday, Rheingold reflects on the fact that small, dedicated affinity communities are a dying breed. “Facebook really put a damper on the proliferation of smaller communities of people with a shared interest,” he says, in favour of larger platforms<\/a> full of audiences which could be mined for data<\/a> and served with advertisements<\/a>. “Once your community members are the product rather than the customer, you don’t have a community,” says Eisenhart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Though there were never more than 5,000 or so users of the Well at its peak,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[64,63,237,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-46062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-internet","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}