THE EARLY DAYS OF USENET NEWSGROUPS alt.current-events.blizzard-of-93 _________________ Thank you for attending this lecture-slash-roundtable on the early days of Usenet Newsgroups. Before we begin, I just want to thank the leader of the ACEBO-93 restoration project, Cat Yronwode, for doing such a smashing good job at fixing up this newsfroup. Now, first off, let me say that I'm certainly no expert on the early Usenet. In fact, before my company Froggy's Usenet Salvage Company claimed this newsgroup, "alt.current-events.blizzard-of-93", I didn't know anything about it at all. But this 'group's Victorian architecture (in severe disrepair though it was) and the rusty teletype machines and babbage-engines in the basement peaked my curiosity. Now, although of course there remains much work to be done, I'm happy to say that this 102 year old Newsfroup is once again a healthy part of the Usenet. Research has been difficult, as it seems that there is no one centralized source about the pre-computorized days of Usenet. But provisionally (and open to elaboration and correction from the rest of you, please) here is the story. Let's start with the Morse Electric Telegraph. Perhaps I could go back even earlier to the torch semephores of the Ancient Greeks, but the telegraph is really the beginning of the global telecommunications web; in fact here and there pieces of 19th century cable are still carrying information. Starting with awkward devices and small distances between stations in the 1830s, within a few decades of constant improvement an electronic "Information Super-Railway" spanned the Industrialized nations. The mid 1800s also saw the rise of the first "hackers", the telegraph operators, an eccentric breed throughly familiar with the arcane codes and technology of the information network, the functions of which were a mystery to the majority of the people who quickly grew to depend on it. One of such "hackers" takes us to the next development in our story: Thomas Edison. Edison was one of many bright young men working to improve the telegraph system. He came up with ingenious methods of "multi- plexing", sending multiple messages over the same wire, to ease the ever present bandwidth problem. But Edison did not merely wish to make the existing telegraph system more efficient; he saw the need to take it beyond, into something new. He developed a device for turning electronic data into hard-copy: the ticker-tape machine. But in Edison's dreams this was not enough: he dreamed of a telegraph machine in everyone's home, so everyone could communicate with everyone else! How to achieve such a dream? Edison realized that the obsticles were not simply technological. Not everyone could be expected to learn the telegraph codes to such an extent that rattling off dots and dashes was as natural as writing or talking. The system had to be made more user friendly. Starting in the 1870s, he experimented with systems combining the typewriter (still a new invention itself) with telegraphy, the goal to be text in & text out system, with the hardware taking care of handling the codes. Then, in 1876, Edison's system was dealt a sudden blow: The invention of the telephone by Scotts-Canadian inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Edison took one look at this simple electronic device capable of carring people's voices, and realized that his cumbersome "electro-teletype" would never make it into the homes of the average citizen. What chance did the awkward method of translating data into a code of little bips have against the straighforward way of just sending an analogue signal? Edison lost interest in his teletype system. But if this were the end of the story, we wouldn't be here communicating like this today. If the average citizen was not interested in the teletype, large city newspapers were. By the end of the 1880s there were webs of "news wire-services". A news article could be electronically mailed from any one site to another, or posted to the entire net. I don't think I need to say that this is the ancestor of our current "Usenet". Of course the cumbersome electro-mechanical teletype machines prevented the pre-computorized net from spreading outside of newspaper offices, major coporations, universities, and a few wealthy excentrics. The gradual transition of wireservices over to computorized transmission, mostly effected in the 1960s thru 1980s, enabled the net to spread into people's homes -- certainly progress that Edison would be proud of. But I am often suprised at how many people have no idea that Usenet predated the personal computor. This newsgroup that we are gathered at today, "alt.current-events. blizzard-of-93", founded by Thomas Edison himself almost 103 years ago, is living testimony to the deep history of the Information Superhighway. -- Professor Frogalogus * Froggy@neosoft.com * "The Information Super-Frog" [dibs] * Usenet party! At alt.current-events.blizzard-of-93, 10 October 1995! Virtual drink! Music! Vaccume tubes! Goat sacrifice & BBQ! Be there! It's going on now!! __________________________________________________________________________ THE COMPARATIVE GROWTH OF THE INTERNET AND THE CITIZENS BAND RADIO ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It appears that the genises of what we call "fads" can have a definable life cycle. This life-cycle, while not completely documented, can be demonstrated by the comparitive growth of the Citizens Band craze of the 1970's and the explosive growth of the Internet in the early 1990's. Let's see ..... Can we guess the medium of which I speak? Think about the C.B. and the internet in the context of each following statement: A. Originally designed with government/military applications in mind, this communication medium began to find a niche "market" as a tool for communication between members of a specific industry. B. Eartly use was limited to a select few and traffic was manageable. C. The medium began with a set of norms, etiquette, and socially acceptable behavior worked out by the original users. Though not written down, these were moderated by peer pressure and the limited number of original users. D. Early users created their own dialect, their own "language". E. Falling prices in the electronic component market made manufacturing "home" units cost effective. Thus allowing a flood of units available to the average consumer. F. Popularity increased with the decline in costs of the hardware, and with the exposure in the media (newspapers, movies, magazines) etc. G. New users, "newbies", were welcomed by some, vilified by others, but were originally tolerated. H. Some newbies, obvious by their ignorance of, or in direct defiance of, the etiquette of the medium, soon gave being a new user a bad connotation. I. Some companies, eager to jump on the bandwagon, gave new users an easy entry into the medium, yet took no time in explaining the language, customs, use, or "socially acceptable" behavior of the medium, and thus themselves became a bane of the medium. J. Sex became an big issue, and the news media ate it up. Stories of illegal liaisons became popular. Horror stories of people abusing or coercing minors via the medium, illegal material being swapped between users, became all the rage in the tabloid news. K. Fringe elements began to use the medium to forward their "alternate views". Backlash was swift as "right minded" citizens tried to force these people off the medium, not understanding the publicity only served these peoples causes. Again, the news media ate it up and news stories and tabloid articles flourished. L. People who tried to use the medium in a commercial manner were blasted by the "society". Blatant advertisements were loathed, and the "sender" often felt the wrath of the user community. M. Adolescent use of the medium picked up, and with it all the horror stories of the mis-use by young newbies. Parents, themselves unfamiliar with the technology, feared their children were easy prey for scurrilous users. N. Law enforcement agencies, and the legal system, unprepared for the intracacies of the new medium and legalities of its use, were forced into unplanned corners. Law enforcement was either unable to "act" to abuse because of ambiguous laws, or overreacted in a "shotgun" manner, blasting anything that "moved" regardless of users actual rights. O. The anonymity of the medium meant you could spew all sorts of posturing and fowl language with little or no chance of being "caught". Parents, teachers organizations, civic minded peoples all decried the use of the medium because of its unregulated "free speech". P. Industries of magazines, add-ons, tools, etc sprung up around the medium. Popular exhibits, user conferences, local user groups, and organized trade shows flourished. Q. A host of "do-it-yourself" books spawned a mini publishing industry. Much money was made by offering classes on "how to get started". R. Militant "newbies" and militant "veterans" each roamed the medium, seeking out infractions of the norms, or overbearing adherence to the norms, and blasted each other with vollies of insults about "elitists" or "anarchists". S. The medium became clogged with users, and sought new methods of increasing its size and speed. T. Social awareness grew, and people sought to use the medium to resolve problems facing society. U. Special interest factions sprung up and claimed territory. Unsuspecting "newbies" who wandered in were often held out for abuse or ridicule. The list goes on ...... Hopefully, the Internet, like the C.B., will lose its gilded glow, and the weekend warriors will slip into oblivion. Soon the net will regress back to its use by academia and government, and those willing to accept the communities/societies rules, regulations, ad etiquette. The only departure of the Internet in the recent genesis of a fad is the, thankfully, lack of a popular song. Thankfully, no one has come up with an Internet equivalent of "Rubber Duckie", "Kung Fu Fight'n" or "Disco, Disco Duck". Thank God for small favors. P.S. Answer Key: F: "Citizens Band", "Convoy", "The Net", "Hackers" I: America On-Line, Radio Shack My humble $.02 worth ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Gardner S. Trask III trask@world.std.com "First .cultured man on the Internet" alt.culture.gard-trask rahubby@sonic.net - Elf of the redwoods, sez "I don't crosspost. I post Followups to other people's Crossposted posts on occasion."