IEEE Spectrum November, 2016 - 57

clockWise from toP left: James estrin/the neW York times/redux; BoB grieser/los angeles times/
gettY images; aP Photo; united archive/alamY; oWen franken/corBis/gettY images

DIAl ME IN:
bill was considered a rite of passage. To avoid
In retrospect, 1983 proved to be a critical year
[Clockwise from
long-distance
calling altogether, more seasoned
for popular computing. In France, the statetop left] Stacy Horn
users restricted their online activity to nearby
sponsored Minitel system completed its first full
ran the Echo BBS in
New York City; Sister
systems that could be reached toll free.
year of operation in Paris, making online news,
Mary Elizabeth
The local nature of BBSing meant that users
shopping, and chat accessible to every citizen
Clark ran the AIDS
could reasonably assume that the people they
in that city. In the United States, novel commerEducation General
Information System;
met online lived nearby. Even though many
cial systems gained traction, with CompuServe
CompuServe served
BBSs
encouraged the use of pseudonyms, or
reporting more than 50,000 paying subscribers.
up news; Matthew
"handles," it was entirely possible that the perEven Hollywood took interest in cyberspace.
Broderick and Ally
Sheedy starred in
son you were chatting with online tonight could
The 1983 movie WarGames, featuring a teenage
WarGames; Minitel
be
bagging your groceries or coaching your
hacker who explored remote computer netprovided online
daughter's soccer team tomorrow.
works from his bedroom, became an unlikely
access in France.
Many BBS administrators, or "sysops," reinbox-office smash. Although the IMSAI microforced this sense of community by hosting regcomputer and acoustic-coupler modem depicted
in the movie once cost as much as a cheap used car, curious ular in-person get-togethers, often at local parks or favorite
computer users inspired by the film could buy serviceable watering holes. Online disagreements-flame wars-could be
alternatives at the nearest Radio Shack for roughly the cost kept in check as well, because the cost of being a jerk escalated
of a good-quality hi-fi stereo. And as the decade progressed, with the likelihood of later seeing your interlocutor face to face.
Another key distinction between the dial-up BBSs of the
the online universe expanded rapidly from its original core of
microcomputer hobbyists to encompass a much wider group. early 1980s and the social media services we use today is that,
for the most part, each BBS was a world unto itself, whirring
Early dial-up BBSs were mostly local affairs. And no away in blithe isolation from all others. Over time, each syswonder: In the early 1980s, most Americans paid a flat monthly tem developed its own idiosyncratic personality. One might
fee for unlimited local phone calls, but calls to another city focus on trading shareware games, another on arguing polior state were billed according to duration, distance, and time tics, and a third on talking about TV shows.
Experienced BBS users would visit the various systems in
of day. Even calls within the same state could be quite costly.
For tenderfoot BBS users, running up a monstrous phone their areas, maintaining a separate profile on each one. In
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum November, 2016