He read about some of the luminaries of The Well's community - Larry Brilliant, Stewart Brand, Matthew McLure, Tom Mandel, and Maria Wilhelm. Here's what "Wired" say in the article about The Well: "History has already decreed The Well to be synonymous with online communication in its best, worst, and, above all, most vital forms.

JM:

Where do you stand right now as far as purchasing The Well is concerned?

MW:

Well I think The Well is a true national and international treasure, and I would like to part of taking that forward.  But it is a slow process.  So it takes time.

JM:

Another thing that struck me from this article [Wired magazine - "The Epic Saga of The Well" ] was the claim that you had given up your social life to make The Well your life.

MW:

One of the things that probably wasn't as clear in the article, since the focus was on The Well, is that we started another company, a spin off, called "Well Engaged".  That was something I ran hard on, for 12 months, trying to collect a premier client list, for what The Well offers. 

The underpinnings of The Well\ are a conferencing system, in the Web context, called Well Engaged.  That is a collaborative  communication system.  Lots of people can talk at the same time, not live as "Chat", but synchronicitly   So I started a company around that, and pushed hard, and pulled back from that in June.  That was 12 months of hard work, and if I had to give up social life, it is because I was ostensibly running two companies, but one more than the other.  The Well, to a certain degree, runs itself.

JM:

Now that you have found time to get married, we have to ask if your husband-to-be a Well Being?

MW:

He has become a Well Being, and let's just say, he is a whole lot more technically literate than I am.  So, it is a nice partnership.

JM:

How does it feel running the world's most famous on-line community?

MW:

You can't run a community.  That is the first point.  A community is an ever-evolving organic being.  Anyone who has the temerity, and presumption to think that he or she could run The Well, is very sadly mistaken. 

What I am trying to do with a small team of very committed people with the emphasis on both small and committed, is to really try to expose The Well, this extraordinarily vital entity, to more and more people.

JM:

When you talk about it being extraordinary, there is a uniqueness about The Well.  What makes The Well, "The Well"?

MW:

There are many ways that one can at look why, The Well, has such emotional resonance for so many people.  And one simple point is that its been around for 12 years. It started as one of the earliest direct dial up BBS's, Bulletin Board Services.  It started in a particular place, in the San Francisco Bay area, with a population that would be defined, as early adopters.  People in the industry. 

So that alone, gives The Well a special kind of character, that people grew up in this industry, with The Well as the place they went to, to communicate with each other, to engage with each other.

And there are many other, more subtle points that makes The Well what it is.  It is not an anonymous environment.  The Well is a place where people really know each other, and where people invest, not just in on-line communication, but in off-line fooling around, and that gives it a special character.

JM:

What do you mean by off-line fooling around?

MW:

Well, I mean many love affairs, and the opposite - the legendary years of the extraordinary poetry, the words on The Well.  The language that is The Well, gives a character, and an intelligent cast, that I think you find in very, very few other places, if any.

JM:

Do you think for some people The Well has become their social life?    

MW:

I like to avoid what I think, is a certain kind of romanticising, of this environment.  That there are a bunch of people, who somehow only find it possible, to communicate facelessly, with computers.  I don't think that is the case at all.  I think that there are many, if not all, the features, you can find in off-line interaction, in an on-line interaction.  Sometimes you don't meet for a few years, but other than that, I think that people really do expose themselves, to a great deal.  In many ways to a greater, or lesser degree, than you do, sometimes, socially when you meet somebody in the corner coffee house.

JM:

Do you think the fact that, the lack of anonymity, brings a different crowd, and a different quality?

MW:

Absolutely.  This is a mature audience.  You are forced to stand behind your words.  This is not an environment, where you sort of charge in, spout off, and then run away, never to be seen again.  It is a place where, people know each other.  Certainly any place where people know each other, and where people are accountable, has a special quality.  Adding to that, again, is the fact, that people have known each other on-line for a long time, and off-line, as well.

JM:

Is there a little bit of cliqueishness, maybe snobbery among members where say if I came in tomorrow as a new Well Being, wouldn't I feel a little intimidated ?

MW:

Well, The Well is many different places.  The Well is not just one place.  The Well has many distinct communities within it.  Whether it is community of women, Women on The Well, or Generation X, a younger  demographic, crowd.  The Well has many different places.  So one might say: "Sure in a certain conference, there are people who have been hanging out with each other for a long time.  So it is maybe a little tougher to integrate".  But that is not the case throughout The Well.  I think, The Well is a truly welcoming place.

JM:

How many members do you have now?

MW:

About 11 000.  And we say, its not so much the quantity of members. We are not invested in shear mass numbers.  What we are really invested in, is the quality of the conversation, and the interaction between people, which is something we really hope and try to do through the efforts, of Michelle, who you just met, and our conference team manager, Gail, to facilitate, and understand.

JM:

Would there ever be situations where you feel that someone is inappropriate to be a Well member?

MW:

No, definitely not.  I mean, no one person is inappropriate.  Some behaviour, may, be  inappropriate.  But The Well is an exceedingly liberal environment - I mean that in the broadest sense.  We accommodate a whole lot.

JM:

Can you describe for me a Well Being?

MW:

I don't think there is any one Well Being.  I would say that, this is not a community that is made of 14 year old's, asking each other if their eyes are blue.  There is substantial, intelligent, informed, conversation on The Well.  I think, if there is anything intimidating on The Well, or if there is any barrier to entry, it is that, people wield words well.  The Well has a very strong journalistic base.  It also has a strong base of people coming from technical fields, eg. from the Silicon Valley.  It is a very sharp, and informed population.  And I think people, especially in the journalistic aspect, sort of feel each other out, sort of flex their fingers a bit, before they go off-line, and write that pressing story.

JM:

It seems to be a good place to get a lot of viewpoints and ideas before you write a story.  Let's talk about this concept of scribbling because everything you say on The Well stays on The Well, and your name stays attached to it.  Tom Mandell who is featured prominently in the article, did a mass scribble.  Has that happened before?  What was the feeling about that?

MW:

Well I wasn't here at the time, that. Tom Mandel did a mass scribble.  I knew Tom well and worked with him briefly at Time Ink, where I was previously.  Tom was a very, very bright, brilliant man with extraordinary capacity, to insight, as well as to inspire.  Maybe to be clear about this issue:  when one scribbles on The Well, that does not mean that the words disappear.  I mean it is noted on The Well that some comment, errand words, or maybe something that one thought better about afterwards, and wants to delete this, is then  "scribbled".  So you still are perceived as being there, whether with the words you first typed, or what you scribbled, and noted as such.

JM:

There is increasing pressure from a lot for a lot of commercial companies to get involved in on-line communities.  Maybe on-line communities for Harley motors or on-line communities for whatever activity.  And then tieing on-line advertising onto these on-line communities.  What do you see are the ups and downs of attempting to create on-line communities in that fashion?

MW:

Well, whether it is communities, or simply supporting content;  advertising, currently, is something that has yet to truly yield fruit.  This means that the advertising model in general, is a mass market strategy.  And this environment is far from mass market.  Targeted advertising, usually in technical areas, or around computer products, seems to have some persistence, so that it is yielding some return, right now.  But it is very tough going.  I mean everyone is figuring out, and working hard at, and worrying a lot about, how to make money.  As far as supporting a community with advertising,  we'll see - that's not The Well's model. 

The Well is a membership community, a subscription community.  It has worked very well for us for 12 years, and we want to stick to that model for the time being.  Also, to stick to your point of the interest in communities.  You know when one thinks about a community, what a community is:  I mean a community is a group of people, who share some sort of common interest, even if it is the common interest of just being there, and engaging with each other.  I think there is ample room, and that the communities around that have afiliated interests, eg. Harley lovers, will become powerful, in the on-line environment.  There are some that can be inspired, as far as launching a community, flipping a switch, hoping that from one day to the next, you are going to have a lively, again, persistant population gathering in one place. Especially to engage with each other.  But that is not so easy.

JM:

Speaking of relationship marketing;  one-on-one marketing, trying to find people who belong to certain communities, and target them with Spam.  That my not be happening in The Well, we understand that, but can you speak to us about that, as an issue, just to someone who so involved in the on-line communities.  What do you think about taking somebody's name, and interests, and then grabbing them, and then throwing  advertising to them?

MW:

It depends on how it is done.  I don't want to, in a knee-jerk fashion, say, "Spam is bad".  Spam is bad, but also you can say, Spam are a form of direct marketing. So much of this environment, will be sorted out.  This is a medium in its infancy.  We are figuring out, from day to day, the rules of the road, what works, what doesn't, what the consumer really wants, what the more, and more educated, and able, and interested consumer wants.  Again, all of these things are yet, to be fully sorted out.  But, in general terms, I hate being spammed.  However, sometimes, I have gotten a pending mail, or what I thought was an intrusive message, and it spoke very directly to my interests, which I followed up on.

JM:

When you talk about the internet community that it is still in its infancy, what is next, what do you say will happen now, where is it going?

MW:

Well, I will speak with very obvious bias, about community.  I think that it really is community, no content, that will drive this environment.  By "community", I mean an expansive notion of the ways, in which people interact with each other, and the ways in which interaction might yield information, that could be important to advertisers, or to others who are selling products on-line, etc.  I think it really will be an environment that sees its true power, that moves forward, based on the concept, of affiliated interests.

JM:

How is it for people, at this point, to have friends in on-line communities rather than off-line communities?

MW:

Again, I don't want to romanticise this environment.  Sure there are some people whom we have read about, many times, who have for 40 years via snail mail from New York to Vienna and then suddenly meet.  And there are other people who have developed  lively on-line relationships and at some point, they meet.  And there are some who never embrace the on-line world at all.  I think there are different forms of interaction, many overlap, and some don't, some work and some may work. 

JM:

The serious side of on-line communities of, at some point, trying to save someone's life, a on-line intervention or someone is suicidal.  Has that happened with The Well?

MW:

Well, there has been many different instances, over the years of someone needing help.  A very active Well member, for instance, who's apartment burnt down or someone else who has a very sick child.  This is a community who cares for its own, because people know each other, and people have real relationships, with real people, not with fantasy beings in ASCII type.

JM:

So you probably don't see being involved in the life-changing decisions on-line any different than being involved in life-changing decisions, sitting just like we are now?

MW:

To the extent that, the on-line world is very familiar to me, very familiar to me, to the extent that I do so much of both business, and fun in digital form.  It is an environment that merges.  My on-line life, and my off-line life, come together very nicely.  So I don't make this rigid differentiation between what I do on-line, and the nature and quality of that communication, versus what I do off-line.

JM:

How do you feel knowing that you are sort of the surrogate wife, mother, mentor, woman in their life, of these on-line people?

MW:

Well I'm no,t and I make no bones about that.  Gail Williams, who is our deft, wonderful community manager, is involved in the nitty gritty, day-to-day to a much greater extent that I am.

JM:

So she's the surrogate mother?

MW:

Yeah.

JM:

What about avatars, VRML - is that gonna happen on The Well?

MW:

We'll see.  The Well will certainly evolve, based on what the community wants, and what the community calls for, and how the community grows, in new members and new voices, as far as new technology is.  In general, we are absolutely going to see refinement of those technologies, and real day-to-day application, not just the sort of tricky, wizzy stuff that most big sites can afford.  It may sort of scatter throughout, but really isn't accessed and used. 

Something that I think is really important to mention: When one thinks about on-line communities, and on-line communication, think of the Behemoth, for example, Compuserve.  What were those large proprietary services really being used for?  What was their base?  I think that they would say that their base was e-mail, connecting people to each other. 

That is really what The Well does in a somewhat different form.  That The Well extends that one-to-one, or one-to-many communication in a form where, many people without respect to time zones, or locations, can come together, and engage in meaningful, and sometimes, not so meaningful, conversation.

JM:

There's really nothing on AOL that comes close to that, because their chat-rooms are anonymous.

MW:

Chat is a very different kind of animal.  I also want to take the very liberal perspective that what The Well does works for The Well, and works for the population on The Well currently.  Chat is something else, and there is ample room for chat.  I was in Malaysia recently in a so-called Cyber-cafe, trying to connect up, and I was sitting next to a teenager in rather traditional Muslim dress who I realised was on IRC (Internet relay chat) and was calling herself "Hotbrain" and was absolutely captivated, couldn't get off.  As I wandered round this mall and came back through this Cyber-cafe occasionally, this kid was just going at it and at it and at it.  Chat has an absolute place in this environment and will evolve as well.

JM:

How will The Well evolve, just listening to you talk about the on-line community that is The Well.  How much will The Well members have to say about what happens on The Well?

MW:

The Well members have a lot to say about what happens with The Well.  We really listen, this is our base.  The Well has its unique character because of the unique individuals who are on The Well.  One of the things I think we can offer is to assist other communities which are forming and growing.  We do not feel we are in a competitive position - we feel that we are in a collaborative position.  We want to offer that kind of advice, that kind of assistance, council, service to other communities in the form of people just the way the fore mentioned Tom Mandel inspired and helped plan Time magazine On-line, when Time launched in the Fall of '93, or Patricia Deluccio who came from The Well and  helped me launch People magazine on CompuServe.  The Well has a lot to offer.  The Well is currently offering help around communities to entities like PBS - the Public Broadcast System - and soon to Microsoft's Slate magazine.  We are trying to encourage various entities focus on what they do best, and a content producer has its core-competency in producing that content, not necessarily in managing and inspiring conversation. So, those two things might be separated and put back together again as partnerships between The Well and various other companies.

JM:

I've read the Wired magazine version of how you were received by The Well community when you took over.  How would you say you were received?  What did you feel, what was your sense of reaction when you came aboard?

MW:

I love The Well.  I've also been a reporter out in the field covering wars and revolutions over the years, and let's just say that I understand what tough going is, and The Well is a lot less tough than the day-to-day tussle of daily journalism.

JM:

So then this question (I can guess your answer): there was obviously a lot of stress and a lot of pressure when you came in. If you were asked today to run The Well, would you do it again?

MW:

Absolutely.  I embrace The Well with open arms.  I love The Well, I am passionate about The Well.  The Well to me is that truly unique, one-of-a-kind place that you stumble upon, that little town that you find in some strange country that hasn't been discovered by a whole lot of other people yet, and you feel special, because somehow you've managed to walk its cobbled stone streets and touch the old buildings and meet real people who live there. The Well is just an amazing place, and I was honoured, thrilled to be part of it, and I probably wasn't as concerned at how I would be received.

JM:

With the type of passion you obviously have for The Well, I would assume that everybody who is part of this company would need to share that passion to make it work.

MW:

Everybody who is a part of this company feels honoured to be a part of this company, and shares that passion.  I think it's a passion that exists on various levels.  It is not just being part of what has become a bit of Internet history, a historical tradition, something that is old, twelve years old! My God, in this environment!!  But als,o just to experience the beautiful writing, the extraordinary words that you see on The Well, is to experience sometimes just wonderful, wonderful literature. That same kind of smack of recognition that this is something special, this is something one of a kind , this is unique, there is a lyricism, there is a brilliance, there is something that touches my soul.

JM:

How often do you visit The Well?

MW:

I have a busy life at the moment and sometimes being part of a team of people who run The Well makes it a little bit difficult to simply "hang out" on The Well.  I visit The Well as often as I can and sometimes that is many times a day, and sometimes a few days go by when I am not on The Well.

JM:

As a person whose life is immersed in an on-line community, part of your everyday life, part of your work, part of your social atmosphere, do you ever go on vacation to get away from a computer?

MW:

Not really.  It's not as though I have some kind of "I need my computer fix", that I have got to have my digital syringe.  It's rather that this is a part of my life, it is part of the fabric of my life. E-mail is the way I spend a lot of my time - managing, communicating.

JM:

When you go on vacation, do you take The Well with you?

MW: