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Cyhist Jul 21 1996 C
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Date: Sun, 21 Jul 1996 00:28:18 -0700
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From: Community Memory To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" Subject: CM> Origins of the phrase Virtual Community, WELL
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Sender: rab@well.com (Bob Bickford)
Subject: Re: CM> Origins of the phrase Virtual Community
Thus spake Sally Bates:
>I'm interested in tracking down the origins of the phrase vitual
>community. A friendly Yale library undertook a Nexis search for
>me and could find nothing earlier than Rheingold. Rheingold thinks
>he may have read it somewhere but isn't sure. In a paper that's
>been submitted for publication in a meteorology journal, I've
>attributed Rheingold with coining the phrase, but I'm uneasy about this.
>Any help on tracking this down would be appreciated.
The idea, even if not the exact phrase, was very much a topic of discussion
on the WELL in the 1985 to 1987+ timeframe. (One thing we've always been
good at over here is meta-discussions.....) Howard was, of course, an active
participant in those discussions. My memory of them is far too vague to be
a good source for attributing coinage of the phrase, but my sense is that we
all had the same thing in mind and Howard was the one who distilled it down
into two words. If he *did* read it somewhere, I'd suggest checking with
Matthew McClure (mmc@well.com), John Coate (formerly tex@well.com) or Cliff
Figallo (fig@well.com) as all three were also participants -- and all three
are likely to have coined phrases of this sort as well. Of course, there
were at least two dozen other people involved, including me (no, I don't
think I coined it), so there are a lot of possibilities. Sadly, we no longer
have many archives of the early WELL, so there's no way to search tapes or
anything like that. Sorry.
--
Robert Bickford rab@well.com
former County Chair, Libertarian /-------------------------------------\\
Party of Marin County (CA) | Don't Blame Me: I Voted Libertarian |
Member, CA State Central Committee \\-------------------------------------/
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: cpsr-history@Sunnyside.COM
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From: Community Memory To: "Multiple recipients of list cpsr-history@cpsr.org" Subject: CM> Origins of the phrase Virtual Community, WELL
X-Listprocessor-Version: 9.1 -- List Server by Sunnyside Computing, Inc.
X-Comment: Discussion of history of computing
X-Info: For listserv info write to listserv@cpsr.org with message HELP
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X-UIDL: 837971719.031
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Status: RO
Sender: rab@well.com (Bob Bickford)
Subject: Re: CM> Origins of the phrase Virtual Community
Thus spake Sally Bates:
>I'm interested in tracking down the origins of the phrase vitual
>community. A friendly Yale library undertook a Nexis search for
>me and could find nothing earlier than Rheingold. Rheingold thinks
>he may have read it somewhere but isn't sure. In a paper that's
>been submitted for publication in a meteorology journal, I've
>attributed Rheingold with coining the phrase, but I'm uneasy about this.
>Any help on tracking this down would be appreciated.
The idea, even if not the exact phrase, was very much a topic of discussion
on the WELL in the 1985 to 1987+ timeframe. (One thing we've always been
good at over here is meta-discussions.....) Howard was, of course, an active
participant in those discussions. My memory of them is far too vague to be
a good source for attributing coinage of the phrase, but my sense is that we
all had the same thing in mind and Howard was the one who distilled it down
into two words. If he *did* read it somewhere, I'd suggest checking with
Matthew McClure (mmc@well.com), John Coate (formerly tex@well.com) or Cliff
Figallo (fig@well.com) as all three were also participants -- and all three
are likely to have coined phrases of this sort as well. Of course, there
were at least two dozen other people involved, including me (no, I don't
think I coined it), so there are a lot of possibilities. Sadly, we no longer
have many archives of the early WELL, so there's no way to search tapes or
anything like that. Sorry.
--
Robert Bickford rab@well.com
former County Chair, Libertarian /-------------------------------------\\
Party of Marin County (CA) | Don't Blame Me: I Voted Libertarian |
Member, CA State Central Committee \\-------------------------------------/
______________________________________________________________________
