An oral history of HotWired, Wired’s original website. “We had a meeting to decide whether we should do writing that includes hyperlinks.”
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Here's a demo version of HotWired from 1995, if you want some nostalgia. https://archive.gyford.com/1995/11/13/HotWiredDemo/
When I was in college, I used to hang out in Club Wired, their Telnet-based chatrooms, especially when they would live-interview guests in there. Justin Hall's transcripts of his December 1994 appearance really conveys the vibes well.
Martin Amis, Malcolm McLaren and Jenny Holzer within 10 days, pretty good!
I used to hang out there too, and Spacebar, for a little while late at night, UK time.
telnet://spacebar.com:7227
I applied for a job at HotWired in 1996. Never heard back. I wanted to work there soooo bad.
Same. I just tried to find the cringe-inducing email that I sent them asking for a job, but fortunately, it appears to be lost to time.
In 1994 I dropped out of law school and went to the Radcliffe Publishing Course in hopes of going into book publishing. To the enduring credit of the program's director (Lindy Hess, RIP), one of the guest speakers that summer was John Battelle, who talked about the challenges of spinning up Hotwired. A single bit flipped in my brain, and that fall I moved to California and worked for the new interactive division of IDG (publisher of MacWorld, NetworkWorld etc.) where I met Erika Hall (Mule Design) and a host of characters who would scatter throughout the industry. So: Hotwired was very important to my early career — thanks, Jason, for linking to this.
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