Like many young programmers of my age, before I could use the Internet, there were BBSs. I eventually ran one, though in my small town there were few callers.
Some time back, I downloaded a copy of Jason Scott’s BBS Documentary. You might know Jason Scott from textfiles.com and his work at the Internet Archive.
The documentary was released in 2005 and spans 8 episodes on 3 DVDs. I’d watched parts of it before, but recently watched the whole series.
It’s really well done, and it’s not just about the technology. Yes, that figures in, but it’s about the people. At times, it was nostalgic to see people talking about things I clearly remembered. Often, I saw long-forgotten pioneers interviewed. And sometimes, such as with the ANSI art scene, I learned a lot about something I was aware of but never really got into back then.
BBSs and the ARPANet (predecessor to the Internet) grew up alongside each other. One was funded by governments and universities; the other, by hobbyists working with inexpensive equipment, sometimes of their own design.
You can download the DVD images (with tons of extras) or watch just the episodes on Youtube following the links on the author’s website.
The thing about BBSs is that they never actually died. Now I’m looking forward to watching the Back to the BBS documentary series about modern BBSs as well.
@textfiles I suddenly feel a desire to go fire up my VT510 and do some telnetting.
@jgoerzen @textfiles I too ran a BBS in the 90s. Looking forward to watching this!
In the recent article The Internet Origin Story You Know Is Wrong, I was somewhat surprised to see the argument that BBSs are a part of the Internet origin story that is often omitted. Surprised because I was there for BBSs, and even ran one, and didn’t really consider them part of the Internet story myself. I even recently enjoyed a great BBS documentary and still didn’t think of the connection on this way.
But I think the argument is a compelling one.
Kevin Driscoll goes on to highlight the social aspects of the “modem world”, how BBSs and online services like AOL and CompuServe were ways for people to connect. And yet, AOL members couldn’t easily converse with CompuServe members, and vice-versa. Sound familiar?
Yes, it does. As he adds, “People aren’t the problem. The problem is the platforms.”
A thought-provoking article, and I think I’ll need to buy the book it’s excerpted from!
Enjoyed Jason Scott’s BBS Documentary changelog.complete.org/archives/10385…
@textfiles Those two projects wound up forming the basis for a various research and other works, such as Kevin Driscoll’s excellent book “Modem World”, which I leared about in the article “The Internet Origin Story You Know Is Wrong” from https://www.wired.com/story/internet-origin-story-bbs/ . I wrote about it under the title “Lessons of Social Media from BBSs” at https://changelog.complete.org/archives/10393-lessons-of-social-media-from-bbss . 4/
The Internet Origin Story You Know Is Wrong
@textfiles Then there is his documentary Get Lamp, about #InteractiveFiction (aka #TextAdventures). A more focused film, it also does a great job of capturing a culture that existed — and exists. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Lamp http://www.getlamp.com/ #getlamp Also all these documentaries are licensed under a #CreativeCommons license and Jason encourages you to download them. 5/
CreativeCommons
getlamp
interactivefiction
textadventures
Get Lamp – Wikipedia
@textfiles It is probably inevitable that Jason wound up working at #InternetArchive (archive.org). I also recently found his podcast, “Jason Scott Talks His Way Out Of It” and particularly enjoyed his episode about making his phone number publicly known on the Internet, and the calls he gets – sometimes people in real need of a kind ear, sometimes pranks. http://ascii.textfiles.com/podcast 6/
InternetArchive
@textfiles@digipres.club Here on #Mastodon, I don’t encourage people to “like and subscribe” or “#follow“. I encourage people to *INTERACT*. My measure of enjoyment of the #Fediverse isn’t my follower count; it’s the kind of interactions I’ve had. (So all the new people that have followed me in the last week: tag me on a toot or reply to this and say hi!)So, you can interact with Jason at @textfiles@digipres.club and @Textfiles@mastodon.social .Now pardon me while I remove some #birdsite clients…/end
BirdSite
Fediverse
Mastodon
follow