[WebCultures] web history documentary - overshare: the links.net story

[Justin Hall]

Hello Web Cultures -

I have published a documentary about personal media-making on the
early web called "overshare: the links.net story".  It's available
here: http://overshare.links.net with links to view on the Internet
Archive, YouTube, Facebook, dailymotion, VHX and beyond.

I hope this might be a useful aid for people researching & teaching
about the history of the popular internet!  All the titles & credits
are provided as HTML links, so anyone can browse my source materials.
Plus the film has been released under a Creative Commons Attribution
license, so anyone can remix this web history into their own history.

Please let me know if you have any feedback or requests.  Here's a
longer writeup:

Hello, my name is Justin Hall and I've been sharing my personal life
in explicit detail online for over twenty years. Starting in 1994, my
personal web site Justin's Links from the Underground has documented
family secrets, romantic relationships, and my experiments with sex
and drugs.

overshare: the links.net story is a documentary about fumbling to
foster intimacy between strangers online. Through interviews, analysis
and graphic animations, I share my motivations, my joys and my sorrows
from pioneering personal sharing for the 21st century. In 2004 the New
York Times referred to me as "perhaps the founding father of personal
weblogging." I hope this documentary reveals that I was a privileged
white male with access to technology who worked to invite as many
people as possible to join him in co-creating an internet where we
have a chance to honestly share of our humanity.

Warm regards,

Justin


Justin Hall
http://links.net

On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 8:51 AM, Justin Hall <justin at links.net> wrote:
> Hello World Wide Web Enthusiasts -
>
> Thank you for sharing your passion here through your projects and
> progress exploring the early web! I've had fun seeing what you folks
> have been making.
>
> I began writing online in January 1994, when I started a range of
> online experiments to see what kind of personal intimacy I could
> foster with strangers through HTML.  I took notes at
> http://links.net/, calling my site Justin's Links from the
> Underground.
>
> Now I'm putting together a documentary covering 20 years of personal
> publishing.  Here's a mailing list and trailer: http://20links.vhx.tv/
>
> I've put about 9 months in on the project, and the current draft is
> about 40 minutes long.  I want to finish this "director's cut" version
> to release free on the web.  But I've got two things I need to resolve
> before I can share it.  One of them you might be able to help with -
>
> HELP ME if you remember Justin's Links:
>
> I'm looking for someone who might have seen "Justin's Links from the
> Underground" or "Justin's Links" in the 1990s.  I'd like to make a
> short video with your recollection of what made my site interesting in
> the context of the moment.
>
> WebCultures seems like an ideal place to make this request; a support
> group for web historians.  If none of this rings a bell, or you have
> questions, please enjoy a blog entry which might offer more context or
> distracting links:
> http://links.net/daze/14/12/21-40th-update-and-do-you-remember-this-site.html
> or drop me a line!
>
> Either way, I look forward to sharing this film with you folks when
> it's done.  If you teach the early web I hope this material might help
> your efforts!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Justin