Specifying Spring '83

Somewhat to my surprise, I found an answer waiting.I want to follow people who are interesting to me, in a way that’s simple, expressive, and predictable.

I want this to work, furthermore, whether those people are sharing a random thought every day, a blog post every week, or an art project every two years.And I want it to work, of course, across media, so I can follow writers, musicians, programmers, theorists, troublemakers …

I found myself dreaming about designs that might satisfy my requirements, while also supporting new interactions, new ways of relating, new aesthetics. At the same time, I read a ton about the early days of the internet. I devoured oral histories; I dug into old protocols.

Spring '83 is my suggestion. Spring ‘83 rejects the timeline and the inbox, aspiring instead to the logic of newspaper classifieds - read this and tell me what you think.

Near the end of last year, I asked myself:What do you want from the internet, anyway?

Pretty basic! And yet, nothing on the internet presently allows me to do this — not in a way that’s sufficiently simple, expressive, and predictable.