They left College campuses, where it had been easy to find each other. They rode north in VW buses. It was the third largest in-migration in Oregon’s history, after the white pioneers and ship workers during WW II.

Some of them were dreamers

And some of them were fools

Who were making plans and thinking of the future

With the energy of the Innocent

They were gathering tools

They would need to make their journey back to nature

After the Deluge

Jackson Browne

In those ancient times, networkers roamed the land connecting people with people and people with information.  They helped people tilling the land; bioregionalists who wanted to live lightly and who knew we would have to share smaller pies; and dreamers with outlandish schemes.  They carried messages via print media and video portapacks.  They used kerosene powered computers (keysort cards).  They created print versions of Facebook.  They organized gatherings.  Everyone knew where the cafes, urban hippie enclaves, and switchboards were by something they called word of mouth.  It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times.

They wondered how they would organize, create community, and access information to make a better world.