Netweaver History

Netweaver was the electronic newsletter of the Electronic Networking Association (ENA). ENA was formed in April, 1985 by a group of folks who were interested in the social and human aspects of the new medium of electronic networking. At the time, other organizations were focused on the engineering issues and/or the challenges of large scale users (for example, The Electronic Mail Association).

ENA's mission was:

To promote electronic networking in ways that:
- enrich individuals
- enhance organizations
- and build global communities

In 1991, ENA "sunsetted" itself in light of the many new organizations and SIGs springing up to take on various aspects of the mission. By then, there were other organizations looking at computer supported cooperative work, computers for social responsibility, telecommunications law, distance education and more. But, before it was done, ENA held 4 face-to-face conferences in DC, Allentown PA, Philadelphia, and San Francisco that drew participants from across the country and around the world. ENA also contributed to international conferences, including the first conference on electronic networking in Japan. Many members of the ENA network are still the ones working in other organizations and initiatives to promote the human and social side of the web.

Netweaver was an early example of a "virtual" venture in that the editors, writers, and readers were distributed on networking systems around the world. It was published from 1985-1991. The "newsroom" was an online conference. Netweaver pre-dated the wide availablity of electronic mailing lists and other internet-based tools. When each issue was complete, volunteer "porters" - people who had accounts on more than one online system - downloaded copies from one network and uploaded it to others, thus serving as a vast HUMAN internet. There was tremendous excitement about the ability to share ideas, values, and concerns across network boundaries.

Netweaver was called a "freeport" publication because anyone was (and still is) free to make articles available on any online system anywhere as long as they retained the headers which credited the authors and the source. People interested in re-publishing an article in print must contact the author directly to get permission and make arrangements.

Netweaver's managing editor, Lisa Kimball, stashed old issues of Netweaver away for safe-keeping. Now, Group Jazz has decided to make the Netweaver archives available on the Web again as a service to the online community. In these days when some folks seem to have the impression that online communities and networking were part of the Dot Com phenomenon it's a good time to remember that the desire to use this technology to connect people has been around for a long time (and shows no sign of ending!)

One of the amazing things about looking at some of these old articles is that so many of the same issues, themes, and hopes are still alive in discussions in newsgroups, on listservs, in online communities, in blogs and at conferences of people interested in the social and human side of networking. We'll be making connections from here to some of the current conversation.

Kudos and THANKS goes to Emily Reich who came up with the idea and did the design work to put this site together!

Enjoy!

(p.s. we are missing a couple of issues of NETWEAVER. If you are also a virtual packrat and have it stashed away, let us know so we can fill in the blanks)

Lisa Kimball
Group Jazz,Suite 440
5335 Wisconsin Ave.NW
Washington,DC 20015
Phone:+1 202.686.4848
Fax:+1 202.966.3772
http://www.groupjazz.com
lisa@groupjazz.com

Posted by lisa on February 09, 2002 | link