February 16, 1978: BBS birthday
On February 16, 1978, Americans Ward Christensen (Ward Christensen) and Randy Suess launched the world's first open BBS (bulletin board system) dialup. They planted the seed, from which the World Wide Web would later emerge, numerous online messaging systems and probably Twitter.
It took several decades until the hardware and network industries could realize the fantasies of Christensen and Suess, but all the basic beginnings of modern online communication were prepared just when the two launched a “bulletin board” called computerized bulletin board system (CBBS). Two programmers presented their creation to the world in the November issue of Byte magazine.
The article caused quite a stir among amateurs and hackers, after a short time numerous CBBS clones began to appear. By the mid-80s, an active community had formed around the BBS, and at least three magazines covered the news of this pre-online era.
It is said that the idea came to Christensen when he was locked up in his house during the Great Blizzard of 1978 in Chicago, and the concept of the BBS was borrowed from ordinary bulletin boards with announcements that closed public spaces, including libraries, schools, and supermarkets.
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After discussing the idea of ​​a digital “room” for meetings and announcements, Christensen and Sweesse set about creating the appropriate software and managed to make it in just a month. Moreover, some facts show that in reality they made the program even faster - in just two weeks - and spent the same amount on decorations.
One way or another, the results were impressive. It was a real home internet. Despite its primitiveness, the BBS soon proved its revolutionary essence.
Of course, communicating with someone on a BBS required you to connect your small-holed PC from the 1980s to your phone line, typeset on a black and white screen and wait for days, sometimes even weeks, before repeating the procedure hoping to find an answer to your message but if it turned out, holy mother - you now have digital friends!
Unlike the modern web, the traffic from the BBS went through regular telephone lines, so to connect to remote computers you needed to dial a phone number from another region or even another country, and then pay the bill to the telephone company. Therefore, the first BBS were highly localized systems for local residents, and such restrictions gave rise to telephone phreaking and other hacks.
Due to the complexity, limitations and inhibition of BBS, computer enthusiasts were the first users to spend significant sums on relatively fast modems. Not surprisingly, with such an audience, the typical BBS (like the entire Network in its early years) was a strange mixture of technical messages, software distributions and primitive online games.
You can also say thanks to BBS for the first holivar in the history of IT, which broke out between the fans of the Atari and Amiga game consoles.
Over time, the early WWW ousted the bulletin boards, but even today, the popularity of BBS from the throne has not disappeared completely. Moreover, they truly flourish in Taiwan, where BBS is an extremely popular form of communication for young people.
Projects like textfiles.com by Jason Scott (Jason Scott) that are trying to preserve the legacy of those early BBSs also show that some of the remaining systems are still functioning. The BBS story is covered in more detail in the Scott documentary “ BBS: The Documentary ”.
It took several decades until the hardware and network industries could realize the fantasies of Christensen and Suess, but all the basic beginnings of modern online communication were prepared just when the two launched a “bulletin board” called computerized bulletin board system (CBBS). Two programmers presented their creation to the world in the November issue of Byte magazine.
The article caused quite a stir among amateurs and hackers, after a short time numerous CBBS clones began to appear. By the mid-80s, an active community had formed around the BBS, and at least three magazines covered the news of this pre-online era.
It is said that the idea came to Christensen when he was locked up in his house during the Great Blizzard of 1978 in Chicago, and the concept of the BBS was borrowed from ordinary bulletin boards with announcements that closed public spaces, including libraries, schools, and supermarkets.
')
After discussing the idea of ​​a digital “room” for meetings and announcements, Christensen and Sweesse set about creating the appropriate software and managed to make it in just a month. Moreover, some facts show that in reality they made the program even faster - in just two weeks - and spent the same amount on decorations.
One way or another, the results were impressive. It was a real home internet. Despite its primitiveness, the BBS soon proved its revolutionary essence.
Of course, communicating with someone on a BBS required you to connect your small-holed PC from the 1980s to your phone line, typeset on a black and white screen and wait for days, sometimes even weeks, before repeating the procedure hoping to find an answer to your message but if it turned out, holy mother - you now have digital friends!
Unlike the modern web, the traffic from the BBS went through regular telephone lines, so to connect to remote computers you needed to dial a phone number from another region or even another country, and then pay the bill to the telephone company. Therefore, the first BBS were highly localized systems for local residents, and such restrictions gave rise to telephone phreaking and other hacks.
Due to the complexity, limitations and inhibition of BBS, computer enthusiasts were the first users to spend significant sums on relatively fast modems. Not surprisingly, with such an audience, the typical BBS (like the entire Network in its early years) was a strange mixture of technical messages, software distributions and primitive online games.
You can also say thanks to BBS for the first holivar in the history of IT, which broke out between the fans of the Atari and Amiga game consoles.
Over time, the early WWW ousted the bulletin boards, but even today, the popularity of BBS from the throne has not disappeared completely. Moreover, they truly flourish in Taiwan, where BBS is an extremely popular form of communication for young people.
Projects like textfiles.com by Jason Scott (Jason Scott) that are trying to preserve the legacy of those early BBSs also show that some of the remaining systems are still functioning. The BBS story is covered in more detail in the Scott documentary “ BBS: The Documentary ”.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/84420/
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