NoEnd Who, What ,When, Where, Why, and How

 

When does the NoEnd meet?

NoEnd is currently meeting sporadically in and around San Francisco. If we start up regular meetings we will post them here.

When did the NoEnd start?

The NoEnd group was started by Caleb John Clark on January 16th 1996 at Cafe Trieste in San Francisco's North Beach. It was built by a merry band of Bay Area web developers as they pranced through the shrapnel of the exploding Internet business. Specifically instrumental in making the NoEnd group happen were Paul Vachier, Neil Mackintosh, Alan Coe, Robert Kelly, Bruce Flack, Simon Smith, John Lowry, David Hyman, Andrew Beebe, Janelle Brown, Kevin Ready, Janine Warner, Wendy Milanese, and Steve Jacob among others.

The birth of NoEnd occurred during a chat between Caleb, Neil Mackintosh and Alan Coe about a Web site project. It was so nice to talk to fellow Webheads that understood each other that Caleb suggested organizing a weekly meeting at his favorite local hangout, The North End cafe. The original intent was to take some of the manic nature out of the Internet business by meeting and relaxing: NOT talking about money, deals, jobs, or deadlines, but rather about the thoughts, news and feelings that the Web created and being able to share it with people would could understand you.

The second meeting saw five people at the bar of the North End Cafe on Grant St. in San Francisco's North Beach burrow. By that time Caleb had met a colleague, Paul Vachier, who had a similar idea and had already gotten together with a few of his friends in the web community. Caleb and Paul then joined forces and the following meetings were moved to the second level North End Cafe, and included pitchers of Sangria and much laughter. At these meetings Caleb suggested that each person say their name and how there week was. This idea took hold immediately and the early meetings consisted entirely of allowing each person to vent in turn, from which little group discussions would result. As it turned out the timing was great and the group grew in "Nettime" along with the explosion of Internet activity that was hitting San Francisco at the time.

Ocean Quigley, then senior artist at Maxis, was the first guest speaker to give a talk on 3-D to about 10 people in the North End. Soon after, on February 13th 1996, the meeting was moved to the Terrazzo Works warehouse in Potrero Hill in order to accommodate the increasing size of the group.

The name "NoEnd" was taken from the North End Cafe's regulars and owners who refer to themselves as "NoEnders" and to the cafe as "the No End." It is with much respect that we take this name and try to and match the trusting, friendly and family like atmosphere that the North End Cafe is famous for. When you're in North Beach, be sure to stop in and have a pitcher of sangria....