home / about

By Caleb John Clark and Paul Vachier, June 2001

The NoEnd group is a well respected group of Web developers and the like, formed on January 16, 1996 in San Francisco's North Beach district. Today, The NoEnd consists of about 200 people in the Bay Area as well as about 200 more scattered throughout the US and the rest of the globe. Originally founded by Caleb John Clark and Paul Vachier, the mission of NoEnd is to humanize technology as well as to provide both a real and a virtual community to its members. It maintains a private listserv with about 400 people and meets occasionally in San Francisco as well as New York. The list's content is a mix of Web developer tech talk, how to's, poetry, essays and general current events. There are NoEnd lists in New York, Chicago, and lists inspired by NoEnd in San Diego, Los Angeles, Norway and Sweden.

NoEnd Press was born out of the idea that many people have good and important things to say, but rarely are given the opportunity to do so. If you've ever tried to sell a book idea to a publisher then you know what we mean. How many brilliant deserving authors do you know who never get the chance to get published? NoEnd Press is thus created as an alternative medium for allowing smart, interesting, funny, sensitive, original people to reach the world with their message. Many of these people are members of the NoEnd, whose posts and commentaries helped to inspire this idea. While many of the stories and other content you'll find here are written by NoEnders, we hope that others will publish their words and wisdom here too. We hope that the NoEnd Press Web site will become a popular and well-travelled destination for those looking both to read quality alternative content as well as to publish it...

Please note that anything appearing on NoEnd Press does not reflect the opinions of its founders, nor does NoEnd Press accept responsibility or liability for any of the content appearing on this site.

Copyright info: All material displayed on NoEnd Press retains the copyright of its respective author.

NoEnd Press launched officially on June 15, 2001.

The NoEnd group was started by Caleb John Clark on January 16th, 1996 at Cafe Trieste in San Francisco's North Beach. Caleb was meeting with two fellow Web developers who were having trouble with a client while he was a Webmaster at a local small advertising agency. All three people vented their, at that time, very unique problems with this new thing called Web development. After the meeting Caleb suggested they meet again next week at the North End Cafe up on the corner of Grant and Green streets. That next week 5 Web heads showed up. They introduced themselves and griped some more and found that it was a joy to talk to people who understood all the new acronyms they were immersed in.

Synchronicity struck, and the following week Paul Vachier, a friend and colleague of Caleb's, came up with a similar idea after attending a New Media social in the East Village loft of Jaime Levy, founder of Word magazine. Paul wanted to create a similar scene in San Francisco and amassed a small group of Web heads during MacWorld 1996 which he brought to Caleb's fledging meetings. At the first meeting the group moved upstairs into a small room with a table. People brought news clippings and stories and all shared pitchers of the famous North End sangria. 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 5-10 minutes to tell about the Web adventures of their week and discuss them with the group. Much laughter was heard. Much stress dispelled. Caleb's brother, Ocean Quigley, was the first presenter on current information on 3-D modeling. He went on to lead a team building SimCity 3000. Throughout the years many well-known and not-so-well known people have spoken at NoEnd meetings.

The name "NoEnd" was taken from the North End Cafe's regulars and owners who refer to themselves as "NoEnders". 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 sangria.

Caleb and Paul joined forces and the following meetings grew and grew. As it turned out the timing was perfect and the group grew in "Nettime" along with the explosion of Internet activity that was hitting San Francisco at that time. The rest is history...

Read a rare Wired article about the NoEnd.

This site is designed and built by Transmit Media. Comments and submissions are always welcome - contact: