A tiny 150-person community disproportionately created Silicon Valley’s early web culture

Evidence

In some ways, the project succeeded. The Cyborganic apartments on Ramona hosted weekly Thursday night dinners and became a central meeting space for up-and-coming digerati. Cool estimates that the extended Cyborganic community at the time comprised 100 to 150 people, with a disproportionately significant influence on San Francisco’s technology scene. Cyborganic members worked at Wired and its online offshoot HotWired; founded Organic.com, C|Net, ChickClick, and a variety of other startups; and contributed to high-profile open-source projects like Apache. Justin Hall of links.net, often cited as the first blogger, was a member. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 133

Categorization

• SHARE: Send to anyone working on network effects or innovation clusters — a concrete, quantified example of a small dense group spawning multiple influential tech companies.
• CANDY: A fun, tweetable fact: the ‘first blogger’ was part of a 150-person San Francisco community that founded C|Net, Organic.com, ChickClick and contributed to Apache.
• XREF: connects to: Early viral-web pioneers formed a scene crossing art, comedy, and network science — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 945; Silicon Valley’s ascendant tribe is a global network, not a regional elite — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 168; A 150-person San Francisco community disproportionately seeded the early web industry — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 133

Broader Connections

• Early viral-web pioneers formed a scene crossing art, comedy, and network science #expands (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 945