Erstellt am: 14. 11. 2011 - 12:03 Uhr

Today's Webtip: The Whole Earth Catalog

The great grand daddy of the modern D.I.Y. movement is still a wonderful resource.

In a world of mass production and rampant consumerism, anyone who wants to actually make something needs one thing more than any other. Knowledge.

It's pretty hard to make something if you don't know how.

And that's one of the reasons there has been such a massive boom in D.I.Y. culture the last couple of years. Easy access to information and experience makes it easier for people who have grown up outside of a maker tradition to begin to acquire the skills they need to make stuff. Of course, tools don't hurt either.

Two things that were made more widely available to a growing group of people who wanted to get back to some basics. In the sixties.

The format was a catalog. But not just a collection of stuff to buy, but a collection of ideas and instructions as well as the tools you might need to do it.

CC - SJ

Fall 1969 cover, Whole Earth Catalog.

The Whole Earth Catalog was that collection. The basic tool for anyone who wanted to get back to the land, it was also an importrant element in the budding personal computing scene, and it's influence on online culture has been massive if not always obvious.

The purpose statement is probably the best place to start:
"We are as gods and might as well get good at it. So far remotely done power and glory - as via government, big business, formal education, church - has succeeded to the point where the gross defects obscure actual gain. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, person power is developing - power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG."

It included user reviews as well, sort of a proto-Amazon.

But the best way to find out about it's influence is to check out the page. There are history articles that can explain it better than I can, and browsing through their selection of online articles is a much more intesting way to experience the wide diversity of subjects dealt with than reading a list here.

Besides, you can actually flip through some of the catalogs. That might not be as cool as actually having one of those tomes in you hand, but it's better than just reading about them.

www.wholeearth.com - Stay hungry, stay foolish. Indeed.