The Internet Origin Story You Know Is Wrong

[GURPS]

FOR MORE THAN two decades, dial-up bulletin board systems, or BBSs, were a primary form of popular networked computing in North America. The creators and maintainers of BBSs, known as system operators or “sysops,” stood at the forefront of computer-mediated communication, carving out a space between nationwide commercial services and subsidized university systems. From the moral economy of shareware to the cooperative networks of HIV/AIDS activists, BBS communities adapted the simple idea of a “computerized bulletin board” to an array of socially valuable purposes. Their experiments with file sharing and community building during the 1980s provided a foundation for the blogs, forums, and social network sites that drove the popularization of the World Wide Web more than a decade later. But today the systems that made up this “modem world” are almost totally absent from the internet’s origin story.

Instead of emphasizing the role of popular innovation and amateur invention, the dominant myths in internet history focus on the trajectory of a single military-funded experiment in computer networking: the Arpanet. Though fascinating, the Arpanet story excludes the everyday culture of personal computing and grassroots internetworking. In truth, the histories of Arpanet and BBS networks were interwoven—socially and materially—as ideas, technologies, and people flowed between them. The history of the internet could be a thrilling tale inclusive of many thousands of networks, big and small, urban and rural, commercial and voluntary. Instead, it is repeatedly reduced to the story of the singular Arpanet.

The Internet Origin Story You Know Is Wrong

The history of the internet is repeatedly reduced to the story of the singular Arpanet. But BBSs were just as important—if not more.

www.wired.com

 

[spr1975wshs]

My wife and I started with ARPANet and the US Navy TechNet when she was a student at the USAF Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson, OH back in 1982. The school issued her an acoustic modem with a thermo-fax printer terminal. It was a few years before the USAF had its own TechNet.

 

[Gilligan]

As the employee of a university research lad in the early 80s, i had access to the engineering department mainframe computers as well as the fledgling internet that connected specific resource libraries between various universities and government entities. I even had dial-up remote access from my home "portable" computer, a TRS-80 Model 4P running the Digital Research CPM OS. Had a built-in 300 baud modem. (smokin'!!) We often used KERMIT as the file transfer app or protocol....it was one of the few options around at the time.

I was also a member of some awesome user groups that shared user-developed software apps for everything under the sun. The largest of those was FOG - the First Osborne Group - that catered to all users with CPM machines, the Osborne being one of the most prolific and most capable of the time.

When some clown outfit called Microsoft announced a brand new OS that would be introduced in IBM desktop computers, we laughed and laughed.

 

[Kyle]

As the employee of a university research lad in the early 80s, i had access to the engineering department mainframe computers as well as the fledgling internet that connected specific resource libraries between various universities and government entities. I even had dial-up remote access from my home "portable" computer, a TRS-80 Model 4P running the Digital Research CPM OS. Had a built-in 300 baud modem. (smokin'!!)

You hacked into the W.O.P.R., dincha?

 

[Gilligan]

You hacked into the W.O.P.R., dincha?

No..but I was one of the earlier adopters of cloud computing.






Said "cloud" created by the combustion of certain kind of plant matter.

 

[Kyle]

No..but I was one of the earlier adopters of cloud computing.


Said "cloud" created by the combustion of certain kind of plant matter.

I've heard of that... Early Virtual Reality experiences.

 

[GURPS]

I was also a member of some awesome user groups that shared user-developed software apps for everything under the sun. The largest of those was FOG - the First Osborne Group - that catered to all users with CPM machines, the Osborne being one of the most prolific and most capable of the time.

I have a couple of Osbornes

 

[GURPS]

When some clown outfit called Microsoft announced a brand new OS that would be introduced in IBM desktop computers, we laughed and laughed.

Kidall has himself to blame, he blew off IBM when they paid him a visit

 

[Clem72]

While it mentions them inpassing, that story largely ignores the major bridge (for the majority of people) between BBS' and the Internet.

Namely Prodigy, Compuserve, and AOL. Basically networked BBS' with a graphical front end.

I'm sure a lot of people here had early internet access with shell accounts in the late 80s or university access to Arpanet before, but for most "the internet" was that CD that came in the mail with 100 free hours.

 

[GURPS]

I'm sure a lot of people here had early internet access with shell accounts in the late 80s or university access to Arpanet before, but for most "the internet" was that CD that came in the mail with 100 free hours.

1984 - School Acoustic Modem dial into a mainframe
Early 90's dial in to NRL with a 28.8 , the piggybacked off that network to get to the nascent Internet - most web pages were gray and courier font

 

[GURPS]

 

[Kyle]

While it mentions them inpassing, that story largely ignores the major bridge (for the majority of people) between BBS' and the Internet.

Namely Prodigy, Compuserve, and AOL. Basically networked BBS' with a graphical front end.

Yep. I had CompuServe and AOL, followed by EagleNet in Lexington Park when it became available.

CompuServe was was too expensive and AOL never had local dialins.

 

[GURPS]

My 1st paid access was Earthlink ... I would get emails about being ' dialed in ' more than 23 hrs a day

 

[Sneakers]

followed by EagleNet in Lexington Park

I didn't use Eagle Net, I subscribed to another local service that had an office in the St. Mary's Shopping Center, can't remember their name.

I worked in the building where Eagle Net was housed. What a frikkin' rats nest of wires and modem racks. Something was always failing and after the originator left, they had the owner's son trying to maintain it. He was not technical at all. Not one bit.