COMM570/Peoples internet
From Driscollwiki
Contents |
A "people's internet"?
Pre conditions
- Ham radio
- Microcomputers
- Phone phreaks
- Blue boxing
BBSes
- CBBS, 1978: Ward Christensen + Randy Seuss
- Hobbyist group in the Chicago area
- MODEM, XMODEM, YMODEM
- During a snow day (Show clip, Baud, chp 10)
- Accessibility
- Sold the CBBS for cheap ($50) to anyone who wanted it
- Pre-rolled software packages
- Cheaper, better home computers + modems
Fidonet initial implementation
(Show clip from Fidonet episode, chapter 4)
- The problems:
- Each BBS is isolated world
- Calling far-away BBSes costs a lot of money
- The "store-and-forward" solution:
- Have Fido BBSes call each other late at night
- Share packages of messages
- Addressing
- Zones
- The Node list
- Note the anarchist impulse, design
Fidonet growth
- Creation of Echoes
- Public forums developed by a Fido user
- Now some messages are private, some are public
- Rapid expansion
- Open Fido protocol
- Managing the nodelist
- Central structure
- IFNA
- The Achilles heel that undermines the anarchy
- Size:
- 1984: 132
- 1993: 35,787
Bridging to other networks, other countries
- Bridges are built to ARPANET/Internet, USENET
- Certain nodes begin to connect across the Atlantic and Pacific
- Fidonet enables international messaging
- Utility within oppressive regimes
- (Show clip from Fidonet, chp 10)
Apogee and decline
- Peak numbers, 35k nodes
- Hard to estimate users
- Possibility of other BBSes
- Integration of BBS and Internet services
Lingering questions
- Where do the sysops go?
- What of the users?
- Connect this to the "path dependency" argument + Julien's paper
- Cultural similarities, technical differences with Minitel
- Why is Fidonet largely excluded from Internet histories?
- How can we preserve the possibility of new services like Fidonet?
