20th Anniversary of the Dawn of Dot-Com

btempleton writes "It was 20 years ago today when I posted to USENET the public launch of ClariNet, my electronic newspaper service delivered over the Internet. By finding a way around the NSFNet acceptable use policy, ClariNet was the first business founded to use the Internet as its platform for business, and the era of the 'dot-com' had begun. For the anniversary I have written a history of the founding of ClariNet and early internet business, which outlines how it all came down. Readers may also enjoy the included anecdote about what I term 'M5' reliability, where the news system was so robust that, like the M5 computer on Star Trek, even those authorized to do so were unable to shut it off; and a story of the earliest large SF eBook effort."

Holy Heck!

[bennomatic]

It was in 1989 that I had my first account, at OCF.berkeley.edu... I posted something to comp.sys.amiga trying to get consensus as to whether or not it was a good idea to spend $300 on a 20 MB external HD for my A500. Those were the days. I didn't realize 20 years had passed.

sigh.

M5 was not robust

[actionbastard]

M5 suffered from the same megalomania and psychosis that its creator, Dr. Richard Daystrom, suffered from. This was the result of Daystrom having used his own 'memory engrams' in M5's programming.

Self-promotional much?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about someone other than Brad himself telling us this is the first dot-com ever? Or would that ruin things by proving that he's fudging the details?

First, Brad? What about J. T. Toys?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems to me I got a catalog from JT Toys (now JT's Stockroom at www.stockroom.com) in 1988. Sex is always first.

Re:Tooting One's Own Horn

[btempleton]

I'm happy to include others claims, and I do mention a variety of other companies. But there's a pretty good chance it was the first, because the flamewars over it were pretty much assuming that, and I know I was the one to convince Steve Wolff that it would be OK to do a business over the internet sold to universities and labs. So whoever might have been doing it earlier (which is entirely possible) kept a low profile, but I would be interested to document their story. Perhaps it's a bit vain, but what of it?

Decline of Usenet

[bughunter]

Oh, so I can add you to my list?

• 1989: ClariNet published
• 1991: First pornographic video binary [estimated]
• 1993: Eternal September
• 1994: Canter & Siegal
• 1995: DejaNews

Damn you. Damn you all. I miss usenet.

Re:let's see how long 'first' lasts...

[btempleton]

That's actually part of my goal. Sure, I wanted to tell the story of the part I played, but I am genuinely interested in documenting the history of that time. The memory blurs after 20 years so I would like to hear more stories told.

Ah, 1989, I remember Clarinet

[ljhiller]

1989 was also the year I got out of the IBM360 / Bitnet ghetto and got a real unix account with real IP/TCP connections. Clarinet. The was always the server I kept seeing references to, but never found out what was there because they expected me to pay to look.

Re:So we should blame you?

[shri]

BUT, in 1989 or 1990 (when I first got access through Turing on virginia.edu), ANY personality flaws would have been ignored for access to RHF and Clari. Not that I know Brad, but seriously, at any point in time we've all annoyed people. As long as they remember you for something other than the annoyances, it does not matter in my books.