I’ve always thought it interesting that back-to-the-earth hippies ran Howard’s beloved Well, so I usually include links to the Farm Community, the Farm (is there a difference?), some of its history, and a bit about the founder, Stephen Gaskin.

Then again we have the engineers and bureaucrats who were critical to the growth of the Internet in particularJ. C. R. Licklider and others.

The National Institute of Health’s National Library of Medicine has one of the best history of the net sites — beginning of course with the telegraph.

I have to point out that despite a 10 year opportunity to correct errors, Howard didn’t creditCommunity
(Gemeinschaft) and Society (Gesellschaft) to Tonnies (he says Durkheim for some reason)
.

Tempora Heroica has been supporting MUDding for over 10 years and still is going strong. There is a history there to be written for sure.

Before we get all excited about William Gibson or Bruce Sterling, let’s remember Vernor
Vinge’s True Names
is really The first cyberpunk/cyberspace story. It
has obvious and predictive links to MUDs, IRC and virtual worlds.