Digital Be-In

The Digital Be-In is an ongoing San Francisco-based event that began with a mission to carry forth the ethos and values expressed at the 1960s' Human Be-In, and bring them into the world of multimedia and Internet technology. It served a role through the 1990s as a venue for the San Francisco Bay Area's community of new media pioneers to socialize and exchange ideas. Cyberculture became the focal point of the gatherings. However, producer Michael Gosney also brought in key figures from the Human Be-In such as Allen Cohen, Chet Helms and Timothy Leary to maintain the 60s influence, as well as 60s icons Ken Kesey, Ram Dass and Wavy Gravy. The most recent event (Digital Be-In 16: ECOCITY) was held 2008-04-28.

In the early years, it drew major companies as sponsors, such as Apple, Microsoft, Adobe Systems and Kodak, while at the same time staying an underground party. After 1997 and after the year 2000, the event started to show maturity. The production team organized socially conscious themes that began catching on with the Be-In attendees, to the point where the symposium for the 2006 theme, Planet Code, had as large an audience as the party that followed it.

Inspired by the 1967 Human Be-In, the first Digital Be-In was held on January 21, 1989 in San Francisco, as a party for Verbum magazine, an early digital art magazine. Verbum president, Michael Gosney, promoted digital media and early desktop publishing as a way to continue the countercultural ideas that were begun during the original Be-In and the Summer of Love, while underscoring the visionary and humanistic components of cyberculture.

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