A/S/L???

August 18, 2003 5:34 AM

Community Memory: the world's first public computerized bulletin board system, set up in 1972 with an ASR-33 Teletype machine. Also, please welcome Benway, possibly the world's first net personality (beating Miguel and Quonsar by a couple of weeks). More on Benway in Steven Levy's book Hackers.
posted by nylon (7 comments total)

Great post! I remember reading about Community Memory here. (You have to scroll a bit, it's a text file. Look for the interview with Lee Felsenstein.)

RIP Computer History Assn. of California.
posted by tss at 5:59 AM on August 18, 2003

Others stake a claim to the "first" BBS. My earliest experience with online conversations was on the Chicago-based CBBS.

Sometimes I long for the days of watching the words leisurely scroll by at 300 baud. I did have some horrendous phone bills in those days, though.
posted by SteveInMaine at 7:50 AM on August 18, 2003

Very cool - thanks for posting this one!
posted by FormlessOne at 7:55 AM on August 18, 2003

A tragedy that the data itself does not live on, for surely -that- would be a legacy.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 11:38 AM on August 18, 2003

I enjoyed this - thanks nylon.
posted by plep at 12:07 PM on August 18, 2003

Excellent post.

(Based on the sample given, I suspect Benway was quonsar.)
posted by languagehat at 12:20 PM on August 18, 2003

[this is good]
posted by dg at 11:02 PM on August 18, 2003