45 Years Ago CompuServe Connected the World Before the World Wide Web (wosu.org) 25
Tony Isaac shares a report from WOSU Public Media: Silicon Valley has the reputation of being the birthplace of our hyper-connected Internet age, the hub of companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook. However, a pioneering company here in central Ohio is responsible for developing and popularizing many of the technologies we take for granted today. A listener submitted a question to WOSU's Curious Cbus series wanting to know more about the legacy of CompuServe and what it meant to go online before the Internet. That legacy was recently commemorated by the Ohio History Connection when they installed a historical marker in Upper Arlington -- near the corner of Arlington Center and Henderson roads -- where the company located its computer center and corporate building in 1973. The plaque explains that CompuServe was "the first major online information service provider," and that its subscribers were among the first to have access to email, online newspapers and magazines and the ability to share and download files. CompuServe, founded in 1969 in Ohio as a subsidiary of Golden United Life Insurance, began as a computer time-sharing service for businesses. In 1979, it launched an online service for consumers, partnering with RadioShack since they "were key in reaching early computer users."
Acquired by H&R Block in 1980, CompuServe became a leader in digital innovations like email, online newspapers, and chat forums, with The Columbus Dispatch becoming the first online newspaper. "... it turned out that what was most popular is not reading reliable news sources, but just shooting the breeze with your friends or arguing with strangers over politics," said former tech journalist and early Compuserve user Dylan Tweney.
Despite competing with Prodigy and AOL through the 1990s, CompuServe struggled with the rise of the internet. AOL acquired the company in 1997, but CompuServe remains a digital pioneer for fostering online communities. "For a lot of people, CompuServe was a connection to the world and their first introduction to the idea that their computer could be more than a computer," said Tweney. "It was a communications device, an information device."
Acquired by H&R Block in 1980, CompuServe became a leader in digital innovations like email, online newspapers, and chat forums, with The Columbus Dispatch becoming the first online newspaper. "... it turned out that what was most popular is not reading reliable news sources, but just shooting the breeze with your friends or arguing with strangers over politics," said former tech journalist and early Compuserve user Dylan Tweney.
Despite competing with Prodigy and AOL through the 1990s, CompuServe struggled with the rise of the internet. AOL acquired the company in 1997, but CompuServe remains a digital pioneer for fostering online communities. "For a lot of people, CompuServe was a connection to the world and their first introduction to the idea that their computer could be more than a computer," said Tweney. "It was a communications device, an information device."
My first networking (Score:3)
CIS was my introduction to networking, and later they were my ISP for a bit. I would likely not be working as a developer today without the access to comp.sci.c and related groups way back then.
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If memory serves correct they were more expensive, per minute, than those 1-900 paychic or phone sex hotlines.
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I do seem to recall it wasn't cheap being online, but I would use a reader, Agent or something, to pull the groups I was interested in as fast as it could and then I could study offline. It was all text so even at 2400 (!) baud it wasn't terrible.
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...they were more expensive, per minute....
You are correct. Compuserve rightfully earned the nickname "Compu$pend."
Umm, actually the internet connected the world... (Score:5, Informative)
... before the WWW. This is a tech site, stop conflating the web and the internet. Before browsers we had (as well as IP compuserve) MUDs, IRCs, miscellanious talk servers (eg NUTS systems, Cheeseplants House), gopher, archie, FTP etc.
I'd expect Average Joe to not understand that there was life on the internet before the web, but I'd expect better on /.
Re: Umm, actually the internet connected the world (Score:5, Interesting)
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No, but no one outside the US had compuserve either then so whats your point? Hardly "connected the world", but then americans tend to think their country IS the world with the rest of us just some funny speaking vassal states.
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...but I'd expect better on /.
This isn't a Slashdot-written story, but just a link to a story written by someone else. While your basic premise is true, your vitriol is misplaced.
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So you're telling me the submission title wasn't written by a slashdot user then?
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So you're telling me the submission title wasn't written by a slashdot user then?
Yes, that is what I'm telling you. You will see that it's true if you click on the link and read the story's headline. Unless, of course, Michael De Bonis at WOSU 89.7 NPR News is also a Slashdot user.
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Which part of "submission title" confused you sonny?
ie:
"45 Years Ago CompuServe Connected the World Before the World Wide Web "
And look, just below!
" Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday September 25, 2024 @06:00AM from the digital-pioneers dept"
It even tells you the slashdot submitters name. Isn't that crazy!
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The first non-American computer to connect was Norwegian and did so in 1973. The connection was via satellite. The UK joined a month later.
I saw a demo of "ping" in 1980 to an American server from Europe, and everyone said this was the future.
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If by "world" you mean "the USA" then you might have a case
Wait. Are you suggesting there's somewhere out there that ISN'T the USA?
Unpossible!
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There were versions of Compuserve in other countries but they weren't exactly the only offerings available. Lots of dial up services were springing up about the same time, and most were glorified BBS services. Compuserve did become briefly popular in the UK, as did AOL but WAY too late to be that significant because dialup ISPs like Demon turned up and ate their lunch.
not so early (Score:2)
was an early Compuserve user. He still remembers his first email address, 72241.443@compuserve.com.
Then he wasn't all that early a user, because that form of email address didn't come into use until Compuserve connected to the Internet in the early 1990s alongside everybody else.
Compuserve became available to home computer users in 1979. That was, in fact, very early. AOL's first service, for example, didn't come about until 1985.
Many other providers (Score:2)
There were other huge online provides, although not quite so early (very, very few people had home computers as early as 1979) around that time, each its own walled garden that may or may not eventually become a more generalized ISP. Examples:
GEnie [wikipedia.org] which was run by General Electric of all companies. It never was able to morph into an actual ISP.
Prodigy [wikipedia.org] which did eventually become an ISP.
Plus there were many regional online services (IE BBS), like PC Ohio which grew to be a pretty large service in the Clevel
Prodigy (Score:1)
Coincidentally, I got an email from a guy at a small California company...with a Prodigy email address!
Yes...it's a *very* small company (they repair and sell old surveying equipment)
Since nobody has posted it yet (Score:2)
"Welcome to WinCIM"
...and very little happened (Score:2)
Yes, CompuServe was a pioneer, but their charges were prohibitive, even to tech obsessed nerds. As I recall it was what $20 AN HOUR? At the time, bbs's were generally free.
The internet didn't take off really until services came out much later that offered connections per month fees, so you weren't penalized for heavy use.