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It was the best of times, it was the worst of times., 6 Jun 2005
Raced through this book, which is an account of the first phase of Wired Magazine's life. Sometimes it feels like areas or subsjects have been skipped but overall this does provides another view of that crazy time around 1995-1997, when the Internet just ran riot in terms of speculation, investment and coverage.The amazing part of the story is the vision/pig-headedness of founder Louis Rossetto, without whom none of it would have happened but without whom the magazine/company/entity may have continued on the course he set out. There's the small start, lack of money, despeately seeking funding, angels helping out, crazy kick-off, anarchic setups, waaay too quick an expansion plan, more crazy characters and websites by the dozen. In the midst of this, a unique magazine was born and did incredibly well but that gets lost in the story-telling and in retrospect I wish Gary Wolf had taken some time to run through highlights, features and even included some of the covers. From memory, there was some startling stuff going. I certainly remember working in publishing on another magazine - Internet Magazine - which happened to be printed at the same printers in Birmingham. The printers used to be amazed at the special colours, over-printing, in fact any and all extremes of printing that the UK version used to go through. Very expensive but fascinating to see in action. I know how much it cost to print the magazine and there was no way that the Guardian/Wired UK version would last but then I never saw a need for it. So, back to the book. Buyable? Only if you're a magazine geek like me or (also like me) am fascinated with that time in media/new media. I'd recommend borrowing it, it worth the time to read it, if only to shake your head and thank the gods you weren't in the middle of this very public car crash.
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