What's a zine?

RELease 1.0, June 23, 1995 by Jerry Michalski

DaveNet has given Winer visibility and access he previously didn't have, including some ink in Wired and a selection as Cool Site of the Day. "There's a lot of power in DaveNet." says Winer. "It solved a lot of problems for me and allowed me to move on. Before, all the things I said had to be filtered by other people. I couldn't do what I wanted to do. With DaveNet, I was able to go around the industry trade publications -- and Apple." Winer is happy at HotWired, but would consider joining a larger host service that needs a personality with attitude. Let the courting begin.

Who else is doin' it

Writer Howard Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community and Virtual Reality, longtime editor of the Whole Earth Review and founding editor of HotWired, has begun to use his Web site as a hub for all his activities and has invested considerable effort into it. He is as taken by the Web as a medium for communication as he was by the WELL when he discovered it years ago. Says Rheingold, "Now I'm not just a name in a book; I'm someone you can communicate with. This [the Web site] may just be a hobby, or it may end up being everything."

Zines are going electronic all the time, though it's rare to find ones that combine technological innovation or payment schemes with great content. Several zines are available for purchase on First Virtual's Infohaus, including ThoughtWare Press, the Do You Know newsletter of helpful household hints and The Literate Element.

On the techno-innovation front, New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) runs a weekly program called The Electronic Neighborhood (aka YORB) on Manhattan public-access TV. The YORB is a multimedia-fusion extravaganza that includes a hostess, Shannon, who guides callers around the various rooms and compartments in the virtual environment. Callers navigate the world using touch-tones. Up to four may be online at a time, one of whom is in control at any given time. They can all hear each other, as can the TV audience.

"Zine writers need to hear from their audience. A zine without feedback dies."

-- Jerod Pore, Factsheet Five

RELATED ARTICLE: Oh, no!

Imagine the Rush Limbaugh Zine. It's pretty easy to envision. (We promise, we have no inside scoop on whether he's launching one. It just makes a vivid example.) Rush might start with a Web site that contains his latest flame about the Clintons, excerpts from his books (and order forms, of course), a bibliography of citations and pointers to other conservative sites, including the Hoover Institute and the Progress and Freedom Foundation.

Rush might also link to conservative talk shows and mailing lists. He would, of course, include his own radio and TV shows. He might include a bulletin-board feature, perhaps on a single online service or as a Usenet group or mailing list. He may link to a filter site that offers a family-oriented view of the Net (see page 22). Like Phil of 3P, Rush would likely charge a fee to subscribe to his zine, or perhaps just to exclusive sections.