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!
Federated nodes are a great way to get small communities going. Having a common interest that unites you, and having access to find and interact with the federation.
Pleroma for life, breaks down a lot of walls but you pretty much know the “group” a person might be hailing from so you have some context to who they might know, be aware of, and what they might be ok with in conversation.
Just avoid the weirdos, we aren’t all strange over there, plenty of great people.
@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
@driscoll Many of you reading this will have never experienced the #BBS era. To use #Fediverse lingo, the high cost of long-distance phone calls caused BBS instances to be geographically-oriented and mostly small, despite global federation networks like #FidoNet. Kevin wove those stories in with what has happened with social media since. I’ve seen several people here note the similarities between BBS and Mastodon – Kevin’s book makes those comparisons deep. 2/
BBS
Fediverse
fidonet
@driscoll The companion to that is, of course, the BBS Documentary by @textfiles . Together, these two works give you a sense of the people behind the #BBS scene, and its legacy today.I don’t believe “Modem World” mentioned #Mastodon directly, but the thoughts in there are remarkably prescient for this moment.So, welcome Kevin! /end
BBS
Mastodon
@jgoerzen My answer got lost so I’ll make this short. I remember Fidonet well. For PBS (LearningLink) I built a distributed, threaded BBS built on FidoNet (every night it collected the entries from 25? sites and aggregated them into a threaded discussion). Great fun.I also ran Atlantic Palisades and was Wizop on PCMagNet (PC Magazine). I even made small contributions to Magpie.Part of me misses usenet, though frankly, Mastodon really reminds me of it.Oh man, I’m old.
@jgoerzen 👋 Hi! I’m so glad the book resonated with you. I loved your post about growing up in rural KS and getting online.