IN CIRCLE JERKS, TIMING IS EVERYTHING

“You had big-city papers and small chains. We shared a need. But it was frustrating trying to come together.”

Harry Chandler, new media hack-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times, on the failure of New Century Networks, the joint old-media online venture, to reach a climax satisfying to all partners, Business Week, 23 March 1998

TECHNOREALISM: A KNOW-NOTHING PARTY FOR THE ‘90S

“I don’t know. I’m not a legislator.”

Brooke Shelby Biggs, freelance new media hack and one of the 12 original signatories of the Technorealist Manifesto, showing deep insight on “Technorealism Applied” by answering the question “how should we think about technology?” in the negative, Harvard Law School, 19 March 1998

ISN’T SOMEONE ALREADY DOING E! ONLINE?

“We’re getting the zine out of ezine.”

Aaron Sugarman, vice president of Agency.com and creative director of the interactive agency’s in-house vanity publishing project Urban Desires, on the minimalist esthetic he plans to apply to the site’s content, Wired News, 17 March 1998

LIBERTE, EGALITE, EMPLOYEE …

“It will be an optimistic speech, about imagination, progress, and new jobs.”

Xavier Schallenbaum, webmaster of French President Jacques Chirac’s vanity Web site, on his boss’s upcoming oration on the French people’s embrace of the Internet

... LIBERTE, EGALITE, TECHNOREALITE

“The Internet has been both magnified and vilified. We’ll try to avoid both the paranoic critics and the optimistic hype and address the issue through facts.”

France Miremont, organizer of a mock trial of “the Internet” to be held in Paris’s Court of Justice; the defendant will be represented by a young women dressed in “cyberclothes,” natch, New York Times CyberTimes, 17 March 1998

GOOD FIREWALLS MAKE GOOD NEIGHBORS

“Because I’m technologically able to find a likeminded person on the other side of the globe, I’m also more interested in making friends with my next-door neighbor.”

Jeffrey Klein, hellraiser-in-chief of Mother Jones magazine, coming down on the side of optimistic engagement with people who live in your same ZIP code and share your demographic, Mother Jones, March/April 1998