Hybrid Response #11 – The WELL
In this chapter, Turner talks about the WELL (a computer system, that was a predecessor of modern social media platforms). The “self-governing system”, Turner ascribed to Brand when he set up the subscription service for the membership of the WELL, would seem to work in a manner that we have become use to now in our daily interactions on the Internet. The goal was to create a forum where like minded people could come and part take in discussions and posts on topics of interest. However, the point of the subscription fee was to help deter domination of discussions by members who were likely to do so, if given the chance; while at the same time, encourage greater interaction and participation by members in general. This would make for a richer environment to/for everyone.
One of the interesting examples turner used to illustrate how this self-governing system worked, was the connection McClure, Coate and Figallo had to the Farm (a 1,750 acre commune in Tennessee). They hoped to create a community of interpersonal/shared openness. “Members were encouraged to challenge one another, to make it possible to drop their defenses and become part of a transcendent collective”. This was important because, as the commune had to change to be remain solvent (“its members voted that year to stop pooling all their resources communally and to reorganize as a cooperative to to which individual members paid dues”). This change in the way communal resources were used, made the transition to the cyber world, which was becoming the place that New Communalists were migrating to. “The communal imperative – the need to build and maintain relationships between people and to preserve the structure that supported those relationships;” this way of thinking is evident within the system Brand put into place.
The WELL was basically a cybernetic experiment, where the perimeters were set and then left one to see what it would become. As explained by Figallo: “Principles of tolerance and inclusion, fair resource allocation, distributed responsibility, management by example and influence, a flat organizational hierarchy, cooperative policy formulation and acceptance of a libertarian-bordering-on-anarchic ethos were all carryovers from our communal living experience.” Figallo also said that, “in perserving and supporting the exercise of freedom and creativityby the WELL’s users through providing an open forum for their interaction,” was of vital importance to the WELL’s evolution.
