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  • How The Grateful Dead Built The Internet

    From Lawrence D'Oliveiro@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 23 01:48:37 2025
    Here’s an interesting piece, from the BBC of all places, about the
    role that a hippie band that started in the 1960s went on to play in
    the culture of the early Internet <https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250618-how-the-grateful-dead-shaped-social-media>.
    Not only were their stage shows technology-heavy, but they somehow
    managed to attract a major following among technologists of all kinds.

    Among the other members of that milieu was Steward Brand, creator of
    the Whole Earth Catalog, a resource for those looking for tools to
    help them live a simpler life, less dominated by faceless corporates
    and promoting more intimate, personal power. Quote from the
    introduction:

    “We are as gods and might as well get used to it.”

    Brand went on to co-found the WELL, aka the “Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link”, which started out as a BBS with users connecting via dialup
    lines, before becoming an Internet-connected service -- one of the
    earliest examples, if not *the* earliest example, of “social media”,
    if you will.

    John Perry Barlow, one of the lyricists for the Grateful Dead, got
    heavily involved in the WELL and then went on to found the Electronic
    Frontier Foundation, dedicated to the preservation of free speech and
    other civil rights in the online world.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to ldo@nz.invalid on Sun Jun 22 22:14:59 2025
    XPost: rec.music.gdead

    In article <103abpl$rn0i$2@dont-email.me>,
    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    Here’s an interesting piece, from the BBC of all places, about the
    role that a hippie band that started in the 1960s went on to play in
    the culture of the early Internet ><https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250618-how-the-grateful-dead-shaped-social-media>.

    I am just reposting this in order to crosspost to rec.music.gdead, since
    sadly alt.drugs.bongs.bongs.bongs and alt.drugs.i.am.totaly.wasted do not
    seem to exist any longer.
    --scott
    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Jason H@21:1/5 to Lawrence D'Oliveiro on Mon Jun 23 21:19:03 2025
    On 23/06/2025 02:48, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:
    Here’s an interesting piece, from the BBC of all places, about the
    role that a hippie band that started in the 1960s went on to play in
    the culture of the early Internet ><https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250618-how-the-grateful-dead-shaped-social-media>.
    Not only were their stage shows technology-heavy, but they somehow
    managed to attract a major following among technologists of all kinds.

    Among the other members of that milieu was Steward Brand, creator of
    the Whole Earth Catalog, a resource for those looking for tools to
    help them live a simpler life, less dominated by faceless corporates
    and promoting more intimate, personal power. Quote from the
    introduction:

    “We are as gods and might as well get used to it.”

    Brand went on to co-found the WELL, aka the “Whole Earth ’Lectronic >Link”, which started out as a BBS with users connecting via dialup
    lines, before becoming an Internet-connected service -- one of the
    earliest examples, if not *the* earliest example, of “social media”,
    if you will.

    John Perry Barlow, one of the lyricists for the Grateful Dead, got
    heavily involved in the WELL and then went on to found the Electronic >Frontier Foundation, dedicated to the preservation of free speech and
    other civil rights in the online world.

    If you want a good read about the history of those times, I can recommend
    Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown. Available free:

    https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/101

    --
    A PICKER OF UNCONSIDERED TRIFLES

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  • From Computer Nerd Kev@21:1/5 to Lawrence D'Oliveiro on Tue Jun 24 08:57:04 2025
    Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:
    Brand went on to co-found the WELL, aka the "Whole Earth 'Lectronic
    Link"

    I liked this long old article on the history of that: https://www.wired.com/1997/05/ff-well/

    --
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