Steven Johnson: The Ghost Map

Steven Johnson began telling his story with a recollection of his four years at Brown. Although he never set foot in Trinity (this was his first time!), he mentioned that he spent a lot of time at Haven Brothers. He told the story of his first experience with the immediacy of online publishing back in 1996. He was racing against the clock to get a new design for his web zine, FEED, posted before the inevitable rush of visitors (driven by a review of web zines written by Walt Mossberg). As his 28.8k modem slowly updated his site, he watched as a couple dozen, then a couple hundred new subscriptions to FEED's email alert came in. By morning, he'd have a lot more subscribers.

Steven's latest book, The Ghost Map, explores how a cholera epidemic ravaged London in 1854, and how the city, a scientist (Dr. John Snow), and a reverend (Reverend Henry Whitehead) figured out that it wasn't caused by bacteria in the air, but from a bad water pump. Essential to solving this mystery was Whitehead, a critical "connector" who used his social intelligence to gather the stories from the people and work with Snow to map the impact of the epidemic over the city. While Johnson was writing this book, he watched neighborhood bloggers and placebloggers telling stories that he couldn't get anywhere else. With all these bloggers taking on the role of Whitehead, Johnson began outside.in. It won't be long before some modern-day Snows find some amazing and wonderful patterns that emerge from this.

Posted October 10, 2007 12:11 PM by Brian Jepson | Permalink