I wrote the rules in 1998.
LinkedIn launched in 2003.
By then, the network was five years old on paper.
Two books changed how I saw it.
Net Gain (1997) said communities gather people.
Net Worth (1999) said members should own their information.
I read both. Years later, I met one of the authors.
Everything on this site grows from those two ideas.
From a pyramid in Oregon to a rebuilt network.
- 1989
A stranger gave me a job title
At the Oregon Country Fair, a man selling a gold pyramid said I was the Earthgrid engineer, sent to build the global information network. It sounded strange. It became a plan.
- 1994
I joined the team building The Microsoft Network
I produced live online events. Chat was true community: people helped each other. Years later I rebuilt that feeling from memory.
- 1997
Earthgrid is founded
December 2, 1997. The plan had three sites. The .com for cloud and web design. The .net for free mini-sites and messaging. The .org for humanitarian resources.
- 1998
I wrote the principles down
The article is called Virtual Communities and Synchronicity. It covers social glue, uniqueness, and what technology owes its members.
- 2003
LinkedIn launches
I had written the principles five years earlier. The platforms were arriving, and each one wanted to be the landlord.
- 2004
The Earthgrid messenger goes live
Written in Perl. About 20,000 members used it to reach each other directly.
- 2012 to 2021
I kept the article current
Mobile came. Information overload came. Then AI came. Each update asked the same question: what do members need?
- 2025
The line breaks
Skype was retired. People scattered to other apps. Email stopped arriving. We lost the line to our own members.
- 2026
Earthgrid 3.0: bring everyone back
Qualify every listing. Reconnect the people. Rebuild the network, one node at a time.
It started with an event search engine.
An associate at the time asked me a question.
Why not build a search engine for current events?
Pages keep listing events that are already over. They do it to show authority.
Authority is the big platforms' game. Ours is optimization.
So you listed your event. When it was over, it simply stopped showing up.
Too few people listed events. So we listed the sites themselves.
Those became member listings. They appear where other engines put ads.
Authority is their game. Optimization is ours.
Viktor Grant
Now we qualify, fix and reconnect.
Every listing is checked. Dead links drop out.
Everyone with a listing can become a member of the new network.
They can chat, message, and find each other again.
There is a size this community needs to reach to sustain itself.
If everyone chips in a little, we never need investors.
Sponsors and contributors are welcome. Control is not for sale.
Read the article that started it.
Written in 1998. Updated through 2021.