Really Enjoyed Jason Scott’s BBS Documentary

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.

9 thoughts on “Really Enjoyed Jason Scott’s BBS Documentary

  1. 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.

    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.

    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?

    Today’s social media ecosystem functions more like the modem world of the late 1980s and early 1990s than like the open social web of the early 21st century. It is an archipelago of proprietary platforms, imperfectly connected at their borders. Any gateways that do exist are subject to change at a moment’s notice. Worse, users have little recourse, the platforms shirk accountability, and states are hesitant to intervene.

    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!

  2. @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

  3. @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

  4. @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

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