13 Facts About The WELL

The WELL was started by Stewart Brand and Larry Brilliant in 1985.

John Coate left the WELL to help create SFGate, the San Francisco Chronicle's first web site, In 1991 Figallo hired Gail Ann Williams as a community manager.

From 1994 to 1999 The WELL was owned by Bruce R Katz, founder of Rockport, a manufacturer of walking shoes.

In 1996, the WELL began using and licensing the "Engaged" conferencing software, which was built on top of PicoSpan and provides a Web-based user interface which requires less technological expertise from users.

Access to the WELL was via computer modem and phone line, then, when the internet opened to commercial traffic in the 1990s, the WELL became one of the original dial-up gateway ISPs to provide access to it.

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Kevin Kelly recalled the original goal was for the WELL to be cheap, open-ended, self-governing and self-designing.

The WELL was the forum through which Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow, John Gilmore, and Mitch Kapor, the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, first met.

The WELL worked with WELL management to track and identify hacker Kevin Mitnick as the culprit.

The WELL was described in the early 1990s as a "listening post for journalists, " with members who were staff writers and editors for the New York Times, Business Week, the San Francisco Chronicle, Time, Rolling Stone, Byte, Harper's, and the Wall Street Journal.

Notable journalists who have written about their experiences on the WELL include John Seabrook of the New Yorker, Katie Hafner of the New York Times, Wendy M Grossman of the Guardian, and Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle.

In March 2007, The WELL was noted for refusing membership to Kevin Mitnick, and refunding his membership fee.

The WELL received numerous awards in the 1980s and 1990s, including a Webby Award for online community in 1998, and an EFF Pioneer Award in 1994.

The WELL distinguished itself from the technology of the time by creating a networked community for everyone.