Talk:Whole Earth Catalog

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Another reference to WEC as precursor to WWW[edit]

In Fred Turner's From Counterculture to Cyberculture turner reports Alan Kay of xerox PARC saying in 2004, "we thought of the Whole Earth Catalog as a print version of what the Internet was going to be." (112)

On a separate note, i was wondering if someone could connect the page for the People's Computer Company with this page. they are both reported on by turner and in Levy's Hackers there is quite a bit of story missing from these pages. Literedball (talk) 05:24, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Richard Raymond (Portola Inst, early publisher)[edit]

Does anyone know if the "Richard Raymond" (of Portola Institute) who acted as publisher for the Catalog's early editions is the sayme person as "Dick Raymond" who has developed a career as a gardening expert with TV shows and books to his credit? Answer: Speaking as the Portola Dick Raymond's daughter, I can tell you with certainty that they are two different people. - Camela Raymond

Looking for a story[edit]

I am looking for the text of a story that I believe appeared in the Next Whole Earth Catalog. It was about the Amanda Madison Memorial Nonsense Box full of odd postcards and about the woman who wrote them.

Thanks for any help you can give locating this narrative. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.19.26.45 (talk) 17 June 2006

There were TWO issues...[edit]

one during the SECOND woodstock era. Dsgncr8or 00:00, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

WEC Spin-offs[edit]

Could anyone provide me with any information about the developing country WEC Spin-offs referred to in this section? 121.128.102.201 10:39, 26 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

thanks[edit]

I know this is kind of cheesey, but, I just wanted to say thanks to the people that contributed to this page. I just heard about the catalog, and it was nice to be able to find out more on wikipedia. Jerimee 04:13, 18 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Section heading variations[edit]

I'm not sure how to work it into the article, or whether it's worth a new list-article to itself, but from my few copies of the catalog, here are the section headings given. I could add the dozens of subsections too, if warranted. Hope it helps, do with what thy will. -- Quiddity 22:25, 13 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sections of the Whole Earth Catalog in various editions
Whole Earth Catalog (1968 (from 1998 reprint))	The (updated) Last Whole Earth Catalog (16th ed. June 1975)	The Next Whole Earth Catalog (2nd ed. October 1981)	The Millenium Whole Earth Catalog (1994)
Understanding Whole Systems	Whole Systems	Understanding Whole Systems	Whole Systems
Shelter and Land Use	Land Use	Land Use	Biodiversity
Industry and Craft	Shelter	Soft Technology	Sustainability
Communications	Industry	Craft	Community
Community	Craft	Community	Household
Nomadics	Community	Politics	Health
Learning	Nomadics	Nomadics	Sex
	Communications	Communications	Family
	Learning	Learning	Taming Technology
			Communications
			Political Tools
			Livelihood
			Nomadics
			Learning

Publication history[edit]

Thanks to the anon that added the publication history table!

There is an incompletgejhzjvjhesjcgéhfffhudlwe listing at Back Issues - Whole Earth Catalog [wholeearth.com], but it doesn't list the titles accurately, nor all of the editions (it's missing the "1981 - The Next Whole Earth Catalog, revised" edition, for example).

Where are there more reliable/complete listings, that we can use as a citation for the table? -- Quiddity (talk) 00:09, 1 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I added the pub history because it was something I wanted to see, and I could not find a good one online anywhere. The information was cobbled together from a number of different sources (hence the incompleteness of it -- which I was heartened to see somebody already filling in missing blanks!) Sources included: the aforementioned wholeearth.com listing, Amazon search, Barnes & Noble search, an online book database software called Book Collectorz.com out of Amsterdam which I subscribe to, the Stewart Brand wiki article, my own collection of WECs and those for sale on eBay and Amazon. It's a work-in-progress and hopefully folks will fill it out over time. Rcarlberg (talk) 19:30, 4 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I have a copy of the catalog. On the cover it states "The (updated) Last Whole Earth Catalog" and states the cost at "$6", as well as "16th Edition, June, 1975". You may wish to add it to the table. Thanks for the good work. - KitchM (talk) 22:07, 22 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I restored the Publication History (gave it its own page) after user TacosDePapas deleted it unilaterally, without discussion, February 14 2021. Sorry, I liked seeing it. Rcarlberg (talk) 20:47, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Rancho Diablo[edit]

TheLand » Rancho Diablo: "I lived in that garage with Heather Hairston in the late 1970’s on a commune known as Ranch Diablo, where the Whole Earth Catalog, Supplements and the Domebooks were produced by Stewart Brand and staff."

At a wiki, so not a reliable-source for citing, but many interesting quotes, and worth pursuing. -- Quiddity (talk) 18:54, 1 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Earth image on 1st edition cover, Fall 1968[edit]

The cover photo on the Fall 1968 edition shows the planet Earth's western hemisphere in color. [1]

What was the source of this image? The Apollo 8 images of Christmas 1968, one of which would appear on the cover of the subsequent issue, had not been made then. On p 6 the catalog refers to color photos an ATS satellite made from geostationary orbit over South America and suggests buying prints or a 16 mm movie made from these shots. The specific satellite that shot the image was the ATS-3. An official NASA report on this satellite mentions these images:

"First color photograph of the Earth (Western Hemisphere) from the multicolor spin scan camera (November 1967)."

[2] ATS-3 16 YEAR IN ORBIT EVALUATION, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 1983, p 3

Liberatus (talk) 18:59, 16 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Greetings, Liberatus. I asked about this on Talk:Stewart_Brand#Whole_Earth. So you think the photo was made in 1967? That helps a lot. -SusanLesch (talk) 19:27, 16 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, Susan. I hadn't expected such an immediate response from anyone. This is now a piece of research I really enjoy. :-) Here are some more facts:

A collection of images the ATS-3 made can be viewed here: [3]

Here is a selection of those images showing the whole earth: [4]

By close comparison of the cloud patterns one can determine that the cover image of the 1968 Catalog is the image taken on 10 November 1967, and thus actually the first one: [5]

Some people got this wrong. At sciencephoto.com [6] the image presented as being the first one actually is that of 18. Nov. 1967 [7]. Other pages, like [8] take this for granted and refer to it.

Liberatus (talk) 05:05, 17 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. So the mystery appears to be solved. Would you like to upload the image to the Wikimedia Commons? I don't think it is there yet, believe it or not. Here's the category. -SusanLesch (talk) 19:53, 17 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Now at last I managed to do as you suggested. The image is here:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ATSIII_10NOV67_153107.jpg

I've put it also at The Blue Marble and Stewart Brand. --Liberatus (talk) 22:37, 10 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, is that ever pretty! It is hard to believe people could do that in 1967. Thank you very much, Liberatus. -SusanLesch (talk) 03:37, 11 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]