Just learned from Joi Ito’s blog that Frank Burns, founder of the MetaNetwork, passed away yesterday. Frank and his business partner, Lisa Kimball, ran what was for me the East Coast equivalent of the Well, back in the early 90s.
I learned how to use Pine, Participate, and Caucus on their system, and also learned early about the power of online communities through the groups they fostered, particularly in education and organizational development.
Frank’s network–and what I learned from the people on it–was a life-changing experience for me, one that pushed me onto the Net before there were WWW browsers, online editors, or any sort of real business or established behaviors in the wired consumer space.
I logged onto Meta probably 5-6 times a day, writing and reading scores of messages–it was my first intense social network, and one that set the model for many others–including those I created for Scholastic and New Jersey Online.
I remember arguing with Frank about First Class software when I started developing in HTML, and his avid interest in upgrading Caucus to have a more visual interface.
He was a wonderful human being, and one who taught me much.
Thank you Frank, and farewell.