The WELL Gopher as a Historical Document

The WELL's gopher was a going concern in the early '90s. At the time, we
were pushing the envelope: this gopher was a freely available online space
edited (or 'curated,' as we later said) by volunteers who were surfing the
cutting edges of 'net proliferation.

It seems like old stuff now.

Though Jerod Pore kept the online zine section of the gopher happenin'
long after, most of the gopher activity ceased in 1994 as html and http
took hold. Why publish plain text when you can create actual pages, with
graphics and some semblance of layout?

We talked a little about htmlizing these documents, but we were all
distracted by other projects. Besides, even then some of the files here
were beginning to seem dated (though some are still vital and edgy as I
scan them today).

At the WELL's request, I've moved through and deleted outdated external
links...there were many of these, because the other gophers we linked to
have mostly gone away.

What's left is a quirky bit of history, a snapshot of a the genesis of
today's Internet.  I'm glad the WELL's left this stuff in place...nowhere
else is there quite the same combination of early writings about digital
culture, the same misture of community, technology, and edge culture.

Jon Lebkowsky
6/6/99



	      Welcome to The WELL's GopherSpace.

	      The WELL is a commercial conferencing system located in
	      Sausalito, California.  For more information look in "The WELL
	      Itself" menu item.

	      This "gopher-space" is an experimental attempt by the WELL to
	      provide a _pro bono_ service to the public in general and users
	      of the Internet in particular.

	      This WELL's GopherSpace is intended to be separate from
	      the WELL's conferencing environment.  The content
	      you find here will probably evolve along a different path
	      than the intensely conversational WELL conferences.

	      This is something new.  Let's find out what.

	      The contents of this on-line space will be evolving as time
	      goes by and we are very interested in suggestions you may have.

	      If you would like to contact the "curators" of this project you
	      can send electronic mail to:

	                   gopher@well.sf.ca.us

	**********************************************************************
 -- ME 11/93
.