In 1996, I asked “Will the Web Evolve Communities?,” and not long after that, I attempted to do something about it, with the help of friends. We called it “the social web.” The idea was to combine community content — what today would be called “user generated content” — with edited, curated material. Electric Minds was named by Time Magazine as one of the ten best web sites of 1996. By 1997, we were out of business. I still like the look of the icons designed by Jennifer Long and the crisp user interface and graphic design by Abbe Don. The conversations are gone, but the articles are still there. And out attempt to make sense of the social web — “the virtual community center.”
Electric Minds — the future of the Web (circa 1996)
- March 17th, 2008
Comments
@ 15:54
It’s a shame that those early conversations are gone…but their successors continue to this day at http://www.electricminds.org.
@ 18:42
Thanks for posting this. I remember my few short months on Electric Minds very fondly. I was not a prolific contributor, but I met some fascinating people there.
Erbo, thanks for keeping the faith as well. I’ve just registered and look forward to seeing what continues.
@ 22:06
Hey Howard! Erbo pointed us here. Hope all is well with you!
There’s some archives kicking around. There was loss of some after every transition, unfortunately.
Geeze, we all talked too much, anyhow…
@ 20:44
Howard? Phhhhtt! OUt of business? We are not!