1/10/22, 12:19 PM Whole Earth Review Explained

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Whole Earth Review Explained

Whole Earth Review (Whole Earth after
Whole Earth
1997)[1] was a magazine which was founded in
January 1985 after the merger of the Whole Previous Kevin Kelly, Howard Rheingold,Ruth
Earth Software Review (a supplement to the Editor: Kissane, Peter Warshall, Anne
Whole Earth Software Catalog) and the Herbert (writer)
CoEvolution Quarterly. All of these periodicals Frequency: Quarterly
are descendants of Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Category: Environment, Science, Politics
Catalog.
Company: Point Foundation
The last published hard copy issue of the Firstdate: January 1985
magazine was the Winter 2002 issue. [2] The Finaldate: Spring 2003
next issue (Spring, 2003) was planned but never Finalnumber: Issue 110
published in hard copy format. Bruce Sterling
Country: United States
attempted to solicit funds for this issue by
writing that "friends at Whole Earth Magazine Based: Sausalito, California
have experienced a funding crunch so severe Language: English
that the Spring 2003 special issue (#111) on Website: http://www.wholeearth.com
Technological Singularity, edited by Alex Steffen
Issn: 1097-5268
of the Viridian curia, hasn't been printed and
distributed. Whole Earth is soliciting donations to
get the issue printed, and has put some of the content online."[3] Eventually, elements of the 2003 issue
appeared only in digital format on the Whole Earth website.[4] [5] [6]

Overview
Overview
Fred Turner discusses the creation of the Whole Earth Review in From Counterculture to Cyberculture:
Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism. Turner notes that in 1983,
The Whole Earth Software Catalog was proposed by John Brockman as a magazine which "would do for
computing what the original [''Whole Earth Catalog''] had done for the counterculture: identify and
recommend the best tools as they emerged."[7] The first issue was released in the Fall of 1984. The
Whole Earth Software Catalog was a business failure, however, and was only published twice, with only
three of The Whole Earth Software Review supplements published .[8] At the same time, another Brand
publication, CoEvolution Quarterly evolved out of the original Whole Earth Supplement in 1974.[9] In
1985, Brand merged CoEvolution Quarterly with The Whole Earth Software Review to create the Whole
Earth Review.

This is also indicated in the issues themselves. Fall 1984, Issue No. 43 is titled The Last CoEvolution
Quarterly.The cover also states, "Next issue is 'Whole Earth Review': livelier snake, new skin." In
January 1985, Issue No. 44 was titled Whole Earth Review: Tools and Ideas for the Computer Age. The
cover also reads "The continuation of CoEvolution Quarterly and Whole Earth Software Review." In an
article titled "Whole Earth Software Catalog Version 1.1," Stewart Brand states that there are three
intended audiences for the new Whole Earth Review: a) The audience of The Whole Earth Software
Catalog, b) The audience of The Whole Earth Software Review and c) The audience of CoEvolution
Quarterly.[10] The office of Whole Earth Review was next door to The WELL, another project that Stewart
Brand and associates co-founded.[11]

Whole Earth had a special role in promoting alternative technology or appropriate technology. In
deciding to publish full-length articles on specific topics in natural sciences, invention, arts, etc., Whole
Earth (like its predecessor, CoEvolution Quarterly) was a journal aimed primarily at the educated
layperson. The industrial designer and educator J. Baldwin served as the technology editor. Tool and
book reviews were in abundance, and ecological and technology topics were interspersed with articles
treating social and community subjects. One of the journal's recurring themes was “the commons” (a
thing, institution or geographic space of, or having to do with, the community as a whole), and the
related “tragedy of the commons”.[12]

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1/10/22, 12:19 PM Whole Earth Review Explained

Stewart Brand and the later editors invited reviews of books and tools from experts in specific fields, to
be approached as though they were writing a letter to a friend.

Whole Earth editors Kevin Kelly and Howard Rheingold both went on to edit other magazines.

References
References
Turner, Fred Book: 2006 . From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth
Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism . University of Chicago Press . 0-226-81741-5 .

External
External links
links
Official website

Notes
Notes and
and References
References
1. http://www.wholeearth.com/history-whole-earth.php History of Whole Earth from official site
2. http://www.wholeearth.com/issue-electronic-edition.php?iss=2110 Whole Earth Winter 2002
3. http://www.viridiandesign.org/2003_06_01_archive.html Whole Earth Needs You!
4. http://www.wholeearth.com/issue/2111/ Whole Earth, Spring 2003
5. http://wholeearth.com/issue/2111/article/101/what.happens.when.technology.zooms.off.the.chart
What Happens When Technology Zooms Off the Chart
6. https://web.archive.org/web/20071104143241/http://www.wholeearthmag.com/ A Sampling of
Articles from the Spring, 2003 Issue
7. Fred Turner. From Counterculture to Cyberculture, (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2006):
129.
8. Fred Turner. From Counterculture to Cyberculture, (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2006):
130.
9. Fred Turner. From Counterculture to Cyberculture, (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2006):
120.
10. [Stewart Brand]
11. https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?
res=950DE7DB143EF936A2575BC0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print Sausalito
Journal; Whole Earth State-of-Art Rapping
12. Whole Earth Review (1985-2003) issues #44-110. Sausalito, Ca: POINT Foundation

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