hilarie gardener

glue / operations manager

In the beginning...

...a long time ago, back in L.A. I had 2 kids and lived the suburban dream. I led Girl Scout troops, organized parades, volunteered in the classrooms, coordinated the 10K's, and ran the day camps. But deep in my heart, I was a displaced Deadhead, so I taught myself to use our zippy little PC Jr. and its speedy little 300 baud modem to join The WELL, and tap into David Gan's online Deadhead scene.

1989 presented me with the chance to relocate & reinvent my life & I chose to move to San Francisco (for the music, the lower telecom fees, and the friends I'd made online). Failing to land a library gig, I lucked into work at The WELL, and stayed 5 years.

Then suddenly...

Spurred on by a cracked email account, my kids' online experiences, and a series of WELL incidents - I found myself promoting new user education and online privacy advocacy in my copius but ficticious free time. In 1993, John Coate (the WELL's first conferencing manager) & I married and I immediately gained 4 more kids! I flailed some looking around for the right way to do good work online, to be an activist & support just causes, and still earn a living. I set up the office systems for Construct, served on the founding BOD of The River, and transitioned North Bay Network through their sale to Best Internet Communications all the while on the lookout for that elusive opportunity to integrate those personal & professional interests. We prepared ourselves to dig in deeper by urbanizing the new family to be closer to the action.

And finally...

now, I think I found that opportunity I was looking for. Here's the chance to take all of that FURTHER with an extraordinary bunch of other passionate believers.