Cyborganic, the subject of this study, was a community whose members
brought Wired magazine online; launched Hotwired, the first ad-supported online
magazine; set-up Web production for CNET; led the open source Apache project;
and staffed and started dozens of other Internet firms and projects—from Craig’s
List to Organic Online—during the first phase of the Web’s development as a
popular platform (1993-1999). Cyborganic was a conscious project to build a hybrid
community both online via the Internet and offline via face-to-face interaction. It was
also an Internet start-up and the business project provided both impetus and
infrastructure for the community. The social forms and cultural practices developed
in this milieu figured in the initial development of Web publishing, and prefigured
Web 2.0 in online collaboration, collective knowledge creation, and social
networking.