REACH OUT AND BYTE SOMEONE

[Note: for a different view on the history of the various pre-Web online services, please see the excellent overview article by Ken Gagne and Matt Lake, "CompuServe, Prodigy et al.: What Web 2.0 can learn from Online 1.0", published July 15, 2009 at Computerworld]

Since the earliest days that it was available, there have been Apple II users who have found ways to connect to other Apple II computers over the phone. Although some inexpensive imaginative methods have been employed (such as A.P.P.L.E.’s “Apple Box” that used the cassette port to send and receive programs via the phone line), the release of the DC Hayes Micromodem II for the Apple II in 1979 made it possible for a new type of computing. Although some needed to use their Apple II simply as a home terminal to access a school or business mainframe or timesharing system from home, many users created their own self-contained dial-up message systems.

These message systems, which became known as “bulletin board systems” (BBSs), were started almost as soon as the first generation of home computers became popular. The first recorded use of a home computer for the purpose of hosting such a message system was the Computer Bulletin Board System (CBBS) in Chicago, which ran on a Vector 1 computer (an Altair clone). It was designed by Ward Christensen and Randy Suess of the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyist Exchange (CACHE), an early microcomputer user group. The CBBS began in February 1978, and at first was no more than a computerized version of the club’s paper-and-thumbtack message board. With time it evolved into a more sophisticated system, allowing exchange of files and other features.^[1] Although not run on an Apple II, the event is significant because it was the start of a phenomenon that expanded to include nearly all models of personal computers, and ran strong for over fifteen years, finally waning in popularity because of the rise of the Internet.

A typical BBS consisted of a single computer that was always turned on, waiting to answer the phone. When it rang, the computer would answer the phone and establish two-way communication via the modem. A program running on this computer would then allow the calling computer to do various things, such as reading messages left by other users and posting replies for others to read. As with the original CBBS system, the software used for running Apple II BBSs became more complex over time, allowing file uploads and downloads (to and from the host computer), online games (text-based), and participation in online surveys. The system operator (“sysop”) who owned the computer and paid for the phone line used by the BBS was responsible for maintaining the software and the message databases, usually leaving this dedicated computer available for callers 24 hours a day.

There were many reasons for running a BBS. As with Christensen’s CBBS, some used it as an online meeting place for user groups. Others had a theme, such as games, programming, or just general upkeep and use of the Apple II. But one particular use of a BBS that made it popular was as a file repository, a place where users could share software they had written.

The ability to transfer files from one Apple II to another has evolved over time. In its simplest form, an Applesoft or Integer BASIC program might be “downloaded” (sent from the BBS to the calling computer) by simply doing a “LIST” of it. That was fine, unless the program had some machine language parts added on. Then, the bytes of that assembly code had to be sent as hex digit pairs (i.e., 20 00 BF 65 10 03 04, etc.), since anything shared between the computers had to be in printable ASCII codes. With the noise possible on some telephone connections, this could result in a single character becoming garbled now and then, resulting in a program that wouldn’t run because of the error that was introduced. Various programs for the Apple II were devised over time to make this more efficient, including some that used the method of encoding the hex bytes (digit pairs) into single printable ASCII codes that were then decoded on the receiving end into a usable program. This created a smaller file than the hex digit files that were “EXEC”ed, but was just as prone to data errors.

Apple II BBSs were not the only ones that had to deal with file transfer problems. At least on an Apple II, a text file could be executed with the EXEC command in Apple DOS, and the resulting BASIC or machine language program could be SAVEd or BSAVEd to a disk. But on the S-100 computer series, a file transfer was even more difficult to translate from text to machine code. For this reason, Ward Christensen (who started the CBBS in Chicago) also developed a method to do realiable file transfers. His method, which used error checking to ensure a realiable file transfer, was called XModem, and became available in 1979. Because Christensen made it a public domain technique, it began to appear for other platforms beyond the original Intel-based computers, including the Apple II BBS and terminal programs.

As Apple software became more sophisticated, and as the files to send became larger and larger (particularly with the introduction of the IIGS), protocols were established to allow more than one file to be sent in a single transmission. The first major protocol that was agreed upon among the major online services was the Binary II protocol. Designed in 1986 by Gary Little, this allowed a standard method of grouping files that could work for any of the disk formats available on the Apple II. In 1988, Andy Nicholas designed a more comprehensive method of not only putting several files into a single file (usually called an “archive”), but also compressing those files to save time and space when transmitting them between computers. He called this protocol “NuFX” (NuFile eXchange), and implemented it and the data compression in a program called ShrinkIt (and later GS-ShrinkIt) that he released as “freeware” (that is, he did not charge for the use and distribution of his program). The NuFX protocol was adopted by Apple Computer as the official protocol for file transmission for the Apple II, and Nicholas later went to work at Apple after his graduation from the college that he was attending when he designed the protocol.

By the early 1990s there were several popular packages that could be purchased, including ProLine, Warp Six, and AppleNet. However, as the decade progressed, the popularity of BBSs began to wane, with the increasing availability of Internet access, and the wealth of information available through that source.

The success of the small, local systems encouraged the larger, mainframe-based systems to expand and offer services to non-business users during off-peak hours. They figured that since the equipment was idle during that time anyway, they might as well have someone use it and earn them some extra money. By the mid-1990s, most of the major online services that had started in the late 1970s were still in business; competition had increased, the number of users accessing these national systems had grown, the number of features offered has expanded, and the hourly cost of online communication dropped. However, the Internet had a detrimental effect even on these major services, and by the latter part of the decade only a small number of online services still existed. The few online services who survived have struggled (with one exception) to find ways to offer value and maintain their base of paying members.

Since there were far too many local systems to discuss in even a passing manner here, the following will examine the various nationally available systems and their history as it applies to the Apple II. However, before a discussion of commercial services can even start, it is necessary to look at the origins of the biggest “online service” of them all, the Internet. Understanding the creation of the Internet helps to understand much of what was done with the commercial online services, and what is done today with the Internet and the World Wide Web.

ARPANET (1972 – 1990)

When the Soviet Union launched the first Sputnik satelite in 1957, not only was the American public taken by surprise, but also the United States government. To ensure that in the future the U.S. government would have better knowledge of technological advancements taking place around the world, President Dwight Eisenhower authorized formation of a research agency within the Pentagon. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) had the mission of enabling communication between intelligence sources and the various branches of the military, as well as with the president and the secretary of defense. In order to carry out the task of managing the rapid interchange of information between these various agencies, one important bottleneck they discovered was the different mainframe computer systems used by those agencies. There was no easy means for data on one system to be moved or copied to another except by direct data entry computer, a slow process that could allow the introduction of errors. The director of the ARPA Information Processing Techniques Office had a room next to his office which contained three different types of computer terminals, each made by different companies, and each directly conected to mainframe computers at different sites. They each operated under their own, unique operating system and set of commands, and had a different log-in procedure.^[2]

As ARPA began to research ways in which to make it possible for computer installations in widely separated parts of the country to be connected to each other, national security was still foremost in their minds. One essential goal they had was a way for the network as a whole to still function even if part of it was destroyed in a nuclear strike on the country. The telephone network built by AT&T usually had central switching points, where a single location served a large number of customers. If the central switching office was not working, none of the customers would have telephone service. While this was an inconvenience, it was not acceptable for a computer network on which the defense of the United States would depend. So ARPA researchers devised a distributed network, with each node connected to more than one other, allowing a built-in redundancy that would allow the majority of it to continue to function even if parts of it were offline (or even destroyed).

Additionally, the network was designed not only with hardware in pieces all over the country, but the message traffice on the network was designed to be transmitted in pieces. These pieces (message “blocks” or “packets”) would possibly take different paths, but when they all arrived at their destination, the computer there would reassembled the packets into a copy of the original message. This packet approach would also allow the computers handling message traffic for the network to make use of nodes that were idle and bypass those that were either busy or not functioning.^[3]

During the 1960′s the details of this network were mapped out, the hardware was built to handle the traffic between the various nodes across the country, and it was tested. The entire project was a learning process, from the implementation of the data packet concept (“How big should a packet be? What format should it be in?”), to the design of the software to direct routing of the traffic across the network, to the design of the hardware to carry the traffic. The first public demonstration of this network was ready in time for the First International Conference on Computer Communication, held in Washington, DC in October 1972. It required a tremendous effort on the part of those who were finalizing the design and implementation of the components that made up the network, but they managed to make it all work together just in time for the occasion. It was an incredible time event, with most of the researchers working on networking in the country in attendance at the same time, showing how this network could function with many diverse types of hardware (terminals and printers) at the conference site, and at the remote locations to which they were connected.^[4]

The ARPANET project was very successful, and eventually the university research groups connected to it wanted to use the network for everything, not just Department of Defense work. The most predominant use of the network was something for which its designers had never forseen: electronic mail. Between 1972 and the early 1980s, network mail (also called electronic mail or “e-mail”) was discovered by thousands of users who had occasion to use the network. As the message traffic due to e-mail increased, the network required additional expansion to handle it. According to Katie Hafner, in Where Wizards Stay Up Late:

E-mail was to the ARPANET what the Louisiana Purchase was to the young United States. Things only got better as the network grew and technology converged with the human tendency to talk. Electronic mail would become the long-playing record of cyberspace. Just as the LP was invented for connoisseurs and audiophiles but spawned an entire industry, electronic mail grew first among the elite community of computer scientists on the ARPANET, then later bloomed like plankton across the Internet.^[5]

In 1972, the name of ARPA (“Advanced Research Projects Agency”) was changed to DARPA (“Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency”), to stress the role the organization had played from the start, that being to help with the defense of the United States. With the ARPANET concept functioning and flourishing, DARPA decided to find a different group within the government to take over management of it, and the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) was given that task in the summer of 1975. Interestingly, when the DCA was first offered to manage ARPANET when it was just a concept in the mid-1960′s, it declined, disbelieving that a decentralized, packet-sending network had any advantages over the communications methods that were already in place. With ARPANET being managed elsewhere, DARPA was free to move its research money to other experiemental areas.^[6]

By this time, other computer networks had come into being, not under the jurisdiction or control of DARPA. And with other implementations of networks came alternate methods of interconnecting the computers within those networks, methods that differed (sometimes significantly) with those chosen by the DARPA researchers. In Hawaii, where land connections were not easy to create to link the islands, there was a network (called ALOHANet) that used radio transmitters to send signals between computers on a network. DARPA also looked at the use of satellite (“SATNet”) transmission of network packets to exchange data between computers. And other countries had come up with their own unique computer networking protocols.

The presence of these different networks brought about similar problems as those face by ARPA in the 1960′s, when it first tried to make individual mainframe computers communicate with each other. How was it possible to make different networks able to exchange data between each other, when they often used different connection methods, packet sizes, transmission rates, and error-checking protocols? DARPA then decided it needed to address ways to overcome this problem, and in May 1974 a paper was published that proposed use of a transmission-control protocol (TCP) to manage carrying data between different networks. According to Hafner:

The new scheme worked in much the same way that shipping containers are used to transfer goods. The boxes have a standard size and shape. They can be filled with anything from televisions to underwear to automobiles — content doesn’t matter. They move by ship, rail, or truck. A typical container of freight travels by all three modes at various stages to reach its destination. The only thing necessary to ensure cross-compatibility is the specialized equipment used to transfer the containers from one mode of transport ot the next. The cargo itself doesn’t leave the container until it reaches its destination.^[7]

As further work was done on finding ways to implement the TCP plan, an additional Internet Protocol (IP) was created to handle routing of the data packages the TCP handled. By 1978, the full protocol was referred to as TCP/IP.^[8]

Meanwhile, universities that were not part of ARPANET wanted network access, but a connection to this Department of Defense system would cost an institution $100,000 per year. The National Science Foundation was interested in aiding computer sciences departments in universities, and so helped design CSNET (Computer Science Research Network), a less expensive system. It would not be as fast as ARPANET and did not contain the redundancy ARPANET required, but it made the computer networking connections more affordable. It made use of TELENET, a commercial packet-switching service that started in 1973.

Other networks began to come into being after this. BITNET (“Because It’s Time Network”) interconnected IBM systems. UUCP was created at Bell Laboratories to handle file transfers and remote command execution. USENET began in 1980 to handle communication between two universities, and developed into a distributed news network. All of these diverse networks had the ability to communicate with each other due to the TCP/IP protocol.^[9] By 1982, the term “Internet” was used for the first time to describe this collection of networks. The continued addition of networks began to blur the distinction between the parts of the Internet that were sponsored by the U.S. government and those that simply connected into the network.

One change that became necessary was the way in which e-mail was handled. From its earliest days, e-mail had been transmitted using the original file transfer protocol, which worked nicely for files, but was awkward for mail. In August 1982, the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP) was devised to replace the older system. As part of this new protocol, new names had to be devised to be able to distinguish between different networks on the Internet. The committee working on this decided upon seven “domains” that could be used for various types of networks: “edu” for educational; “com” for a company; “gov” for government; “mil” for military; “org” for a non-profit organization; “net” for a network service provider; and “int” for an international treaty entity. These domain names also allowed for automatic translation of names into the numeric addresses that the computers routing the information actually used, with the help of a domain name server (DNS).

As useful as ARPANET and the Internet had become, the speed of communication became a problem as more and more nodes were added on to it. In 1985, the National Science Foundation began creation of NSFNET, a backbone to connect supercomputer centers from several places in the United States. The power, speed, and capacity of this new network exceeded that of ARPANET, and eventually made it obsolete. In 1990 it was decided to shut down ARPANET, and allow the various computers connected to it to connect instead to the faster NSFNET.^[10]

THE SOURCE (1979 – 1989)

The Source began in 1979 and lasted until 1989. For much of its life, it was owned by Reader’s Digest. It was accessible through Telenet or Tymnet nodes; that is, through computers in a locality that act as gateways to many other online computer services across the country. (Often there was an additional fee for using the Telenet or Tymnet node, in addition to the charges for the specific service being accessed). The Source had many services available online, including over twenty financial and business services, access to several national and international news services, and computer-specific news features. It offered travel services, to lookup airline schedules and plan connecting flights. It would also connect to weather services, and offered reviews of restaurants and hotels.

The Source offered access to news with keyword searches from United Press International, as well as summaries of articles in twenty-seven leading business publications. Another service called Information On Demand provided access to more than one hundred fifty research-oriented databases.

It also had electronic mail, bulletin boards, a Mailgram service that guaranteed next-day delivery (by paper), and computer conferencing. Games were another popular offering (text-based, of course).

Access to mainframe computers was also made available, allowing storage on those mainframe compters in FORTRAN, Pascal, or Info-X. ^[11]

An online encyclopedia and shopping were also available. One feature unique to The Source was the capability to create “scripts” that the mainframe kept track of (rather than being on the user’s local terminal program disk). These scripts could be used to quickly move to certain areas and perform repetitive functions (such as scanning and reading electronic mail, and checking for new files in the library).

The Apple II had a presence on The Source from its earliest days, but the APPLESIG was updated in 1987, and Joseph Kohn (who has written articles for inCider/A+, had worked with the Big Red Computer Club, and now has his own newsletter, Shareware Solutions II) was the chief sysop. He operated the APPLESIG from May 1987 until The Source closed down.

Kohn worked to make APPLESIG a major information source for Apple II users. Registered with Apple as a user group, they had expert advice available, as well as a large library of articles and software. The online charges were lower for APPLESIG, which also made it attractive for users. As with other online services, a bulletin board section was also maintained for ongoing discussions between users about various topics of interest. They also had an online presence maintained by The Apple IIGS Buyer’s Guide, and were allowed to reprint articles from MicroTimes and A+ Magazine.^[12]

According to Kohn, one thing that likely contributed to the demise of The Source was their insistence on a $10 monthly minimum charge, long after other national online services had either eliminated or significantly lowered such charges. Another problem that he identified was that their system was not as easy to use as some other services (although former users feel that the Source’s library search protocol was better than any other). The Source was bought out by CompuServe, and its subscribers merged with that service in 1989.^[13],^[14]

COMPUSERVE (1979-2009)

This service originally began as “Compu-Serv” in 1969 as an in-house computer processing center for Golden United Life Insurance Co. During the next ten years they expanded their offerings to business users, and by 1972 had over four hundred accounts across the country. In 1977 the name was officially changed to “CompuServe Incorporated.” and by 1979 they were ready to begin offering service to computer hobbyists. Their new service was called MicroNET, and it started on July 1, 1979 after two months of testing with the 1,200 members of the Midwest Affiliation of Computer Clubs. Items available online were bulletin boards, databases, and games. Soon after they started this, an Apple II special interest group was begun. It gave itself the name “MAUG” (for “MicroNetted Apple User Group”).

In 1980, CompuServe merged with H&R Block, and changed their personal computer service name from MicroNET to CompuServe Information Service. They continued to expand their services and capabilities, and were widely available across the country.^[15]

Each user on CompuServe was assigned an eight or nine digit ID code, divided into five digits, a comma, and then the other three or four digits. For example, a user’s code might be 76543,4321. When directing electronic mail to a specific user, it was necessary to use that ID code so the system knows exactly which Joe Smith you wanted to receive your message.

The bulletin board and message sections on CompuServe were divided up into Forums, usually dedicated to a specific service. The MAUG section covered more than one forum, since the volume of message traffic was too large to manage in a single forum. Messages within a forum were organized under major subjects, and then under minor subjects. Each message was assigned a number, and the various messages were linked together into “threads”. For instance, user #1 asks a question about a brand of modem. User #2 links his answer to that message and answers the original question. User #3 also answers the question, but adds a comment about terminal programs. User #4 picks up on that comment, and adds his views about the terminal program that he likes, without mentioning anything about the modem question that user #1 asked. And on it goes. Eventually, the topic would die out, to be restarted later by someone else when it is necessary. The message thread could be followed when reading these posts, or you could simply read all the messages sequentially by their message number. A sequential scan would read all messages about all topics, whether the messages were connected or not. Following the thread pursued one conversation; following all of the messages pursued all conversations that are going on.

One problem that can occur with this type of system depends on the volume of message traffic. The software that CompuServe used assigned a new number to each new message, but when the total number of messages passed a certain point, the first message was deleted. If the range of messages when signing on Monday ran from 15000 to 17000, by Tuesday it may then run from 15500 to 17500 (and the first 500 messages from 15000 to 15499 had disappeared). If there were any especially useful conversations going on, the Sysop (system operator) for that forum could choose to save the messages and their threads into a file in the library for access in the future by those who were not involved in the conversations when they were going on.

Each forum on CompuServe had the capability of supporting live conferences, where many users can be present at the same time and hold live interactive conversations (as opposed to the bulletin board conversations where you must post a message, and then log on later to see if there has been a reply to it).

The MAUG libraries held programs that had been uploaded for years; some from the early part of the 1980s (if you could wait for the file scan to get back that far). There were also many new files , added daily by the active people on the forum.

As with the other major online systems, there were many other services available online besides the MAUG forums, including news services, online shopping, games, and much more.^[16]

By the early 1990s, CompuServe was struggling to accomodate itself to the advances being made in the online world, particularly the burgeoning phenomenon of The Internet. Competition with other online services made it necessary to make adjustments in the cost of the service, and the cost was dropped from $10 per hour to $1.95 per hour. A portal to allow access to the Internet was added. By 1997, pricing was changed to offer a flat monthly fee of $24.95, to compete with rates offered by America Online. The company also began to convert its forums from its proprietary format to one complatible with HTML.

About this same time, CompuServe’s owner, H&R Block, decided to sell the online service. The service actually consisted of two main divisions, CompuServe Information Services (where the forum and file activity was managed) and CompuServe Network Services (which managed the computer network on which the Information Services was hosted). The Network segment was sold to WorldCom, which also purchased MCI (a telephone long-distance company) and renamed itself MCI WorldCom. Eventually, WorldCom went into bankruptcy and again became just MCI, which was sold in 2006 to Verizon. With this change of hands, the original CompuServe Network Services is now part of what is in 2010 called Verizon Business.

The CompuServe Information Services division was sold in February 1998 to former competitor America Online. Soon afterward, it was announced that access to CompuServe would require a “front-end” program to manage access, rather than allow use of any generic telecommuncations program. This move accelerated the exodus of Apple II users from that service to elsewhere (often going to Delphi). By 1999, the mainframe computers on which CompuServe was run were upgraded from the very old 36-bit architecture to newer 32 bit computers, which broke access for text-based computers. It was in February 1999 that the APPUSER forum for Apple II computers disappeared, because of this change. A space was made available on the MACUSER forum for Apple II issues, and the first message posted there by Joe Kohn (who discovered the change) was “Apple II Forever!”

For a while, AOL continued to operate CompuServe’s dial-up services (called CompuServe Classic), but with the increasing popularity of parent AOL and of the World Wide Web, it became increasingly difficult to compete. By 2007 CompuServe international divisions were closed down, and in 2009 CompuServe Classic was also discontinued.^[17]

GENIE (1985 – 1999)

GEnie was owned and operated by General Electric, and the name stood for “General Electric Network for Information Exchange”. It began operation in 1985, and, like other online systems, offered many different services to its subscribers, including news, an online encyclopedia, online shopping, games, financial information, and areas of interest to users of various brands of computers.

Where CompuServe’s sections were called Forums, GEnie called their sections Roundtables (or RTs for short). Each RT was divided up into a bulletin board, library, and conference rooms (called “Real Time Conferences.” or RTC’s). The bulletin board was divided up into a number of categories, and each category consisted of a number of topics. Each topic then had individual messages that (hopefully) deal with that topic. Unlike CompuServe, messages did not disappear from a topic until the Sysop decided to delete them (which did not occur until the number of messages either got too large to be manageable, or they became old and outdated). If a topic contained messages that were particularly helpful (such as information about the use of a common computer utility program), the messages were maintained for years. If it became necessary to purge old messages, they were often placed into the library so they could still available for future reference.

As for user ID’s, GEnie decided to use a combination of letters and other symbols to give each user a unique name, instead of the number system employed by CompuServe. A new user was typically assigned a user name that consisted of their first initial, a period, and their last name. If there is another user with the same user name at that point, a number is added. For instance, Joe Smith would be given the name J.SMITH; if there were already three Joe Smith’s on the system, then this name would be changed to J.SMITH4 to tell him apart from the other ones. A user could ask for a different name (for a price) if the one assigned to him or her was not satisfactory. These tended to be as varied as vanity license plates on automobiles. If J.SMITH4 owns a restaurant, he might ask GEnie to give him a name such as EAT.AT.JOES instead of his original name.

GEnie started supporting the Apple II computer on October 27th, 1985, about five days prior to its going public. Kent Fillmore was the first Apple Information Manager, and the first Sysop was Cathy Christiansen. Fillmore started the “America Apple RoundTable” (AART), for the Apple ][ and /// Computers, as well as the A2PRO RT (Apple II Programmers) with Michael Fischer (MFISCHER), A+ Magazine RT with Maggie Canon (A.PLUS), the Apple/Mac User Group RT with Leonard Reed (BIBLIA), the ProTree RT with Bob Garth (PROTREE), and the GEnie Sysop's private RoundTable.^[18] Fillmore left GEnie in October 1987 and Tom Weishaar took over some of those RTs. Fillmore later returned to GEnie in June 1992 to become the Product Manager for Computing RoundTables/ChatLines.^[19]

To stay competitive with older and sometimes larger information services, GEnie has usually kept its online costs below those of the other systems. The association with Tom Weishaar and his newsletter, A2-Central (originally Open-Apple), was beneficial for both. GEnie’s 100,000th member in March 1988 was an Apple II user that joined because of a special offer through Open-Apple. Weishaar was also able to keep more direct contact with Apple II users, both those who worked professionally with the II and with those who were casual users of the Apple II.^[20]

One of the special contributions to the Apple II world accomplished by the A2 Roundtable on GEnie was the production of the platform-specific online monthly newsletter, GEnieLamp A2. Begun in April 1992 as part of a series of similar newsletters covering the major computer models with Roundtables on GEnie. GEnieLamp A2Pro also was offered for a while as a focus on Apple II programmers. GEnieLamp A2 was eventually edited by Doug Cuff, who continued this position through the end of 1996, at which time Ryan Suenaga took over as editor. By the time of this change, none of the other original GEnieLamp editions were still being produced; this Apple II edition was the sole survivor.

As with other online services in the 1990s, the challenge faced by GEnie was a combination of the rise of the World Wide Web and the graphic user interface, particularly from the Macintosh and Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. This type of computer use was making the classic text-based services less and less relevant. Furthermore, subscriber losses to the older text-based platforms (including the Apple II) were having a detrimental effect on GEnie’s business model.

By the end of 1995, General Electronic Information Services announced that it was looking for a buyer for GEnie. In March 1996 it was announced that Yovelle Renaissance Corporation had purchased the service, and was changing its name to “Genie” (without the uppercase “E” that had linked it to GE, General Electric). The new company also announced a significant hike in the subscription cost, from $8.95 per month to $18.95 per month. New subscribers were penalized by being charged $23.95 per month. The initial effect of this change was, as expected, a high number of subscribers choosing to cancel their accounts.

By pricing their customers out of the market, Yovelle/Genie also found it necessary to close down some of the Roundtables. DigiPub, a digital publishing Roundtable was closed, and GEnieLamp A2 editor Doug Cuff rescued all of the GEnieLamp A2 and GEnieLamp A2Pro issues from the DigiPub library, and moved them into the A2 Roundtable library. Many of the A2 Roundtable members chose to move over to Delphi, which still had text-based access available (which was compatible with a standard Apple II with a modem). Another low-traffic Roundtable that was closed by June 1997 was the A2Pro RT. On June 26, 1997, A2Pro was merged with the A2 RT, causing several hundred messages to suddenly appear as “new” to those looking at the A2 Roundtable.

Another change happened late in the summer of 1997. Many users of GEnie (and the newer Genie) had used what were called off-line readers, which were scripts that controlled their telecommunications program to automatically dial-up the service, check for and download new messages, upload replies, and then sign off. Scripts to a text-editor then automated the reading and replies of messages. This allowed a more efficient use of the online time, and saved money for many of the users of GEnie. (Similar packages had been created for CompuServe and Delphi). What made things more difficult for those who used these offline readers was the announcement by Genie management in July that by September they would be making changes in the service that would, in effect, “break” all of the existing offline readers. This change further discouraged use of Genie services.

By early 1998, traffic on the Delphi Apple II Forum and Genie’s A2 Roundtable were similar. However, major cracks in the GEIS (General Electric Information Systems) infrastructure became apparent. Because there were no longer any of the original programmers or staff engineers working for Yovelle, it was not possible to fix things when they went wrong. One of those things was related to the infamous Y2K bug: Since 1998, because the system could not handle dates beyond the end of 1999, it had not been possible even sign up new Genie users, because their credit card expiration dates went past 12/99. The problems of system maintenance became more apparent by April 1999: For three full weeks of this month it was impossible for either users or staff to access the A2 Roundtable. Another blackout happened by the summer, and some Apple II users found it necessary to set up a temporary home in the Mac Roundtable.

By late in the year, Yovelle announced that after December 27, 1999, all Genie content would have to be accessed via a web browser. The Science Fiction Roundtable (SFRT) held a wake that evening, to watch the service’s last hours. It continued to be sporadically available for the next four days. According to a post made on a Usenet newsgroup (alt.online-service.genie) by SFRT managing sysop Nic Grabien, the official “time of death” was 14:15 PST on 12/31/99. After that time, it would connect via modem, but would not respond with any content. Further communication with Genie was only possible via the web at www.genie.com. (Interestingly, as of April 2010, attempting to access that web site also results in a “connection”, in that there is no error message, but as happened ten years earlier, there is no content displayed).

DELPHI (1982 – 2001)

In 1982 the General Videotex Corporation began an online service called Delphi (probably named after the oracle of ancient Greek mythology). They were not a major player in the competition for customers between national online services, but had their own niche during their years of operation. Like The Source, Delphi was accessible through Telenet and Tymnet. They had an Apple II SIG (Special Interest Group) from 1985 . Erik Kloeppel was head Sysop for that SIG for a number of years.

In January 1992, General Videotex purchased the BIX online service operated by Byte magazine in an effort to enlarge Delphi and increase its market share. It began to offer forums to attract users of the various existing computer platforms, including the Apple II. In 1996 Delphi was sold to a group of investors that included Bill Loudin, who had managed GEnie at its peak of popularity. They changed the service to free access, supported by web-based advertising (in the height of the dot-com bubble, in which nearly anything that could be done via the Web was supported heavily by speculator investments).

With the decline and fall of Genie in the late 1990s, Delphi found its Apple II ranks swelled by refugees from that service. CompuServe’s similar problems at about the same time added to the traffic. Syndicomm, which had been managing the Apple II Roundtables on Genie also began to manage an Apple II forum on Delphi. Gary Utter, who had supervised activities on Genie came over to help manage the new forum. The new owners of Delphi worked at mirroring postings between Delphi’s web pages and the older, text-based access. This made it possible for those who were still accessing online services via a dial-up modem and ASCII text to participate and interact with those who read and posted messages via a web browser. Even those who wished to use a text-based web browser (such as Lynx) could access much of the web content. One of the other changes made by the new, internet accessible, ad-supported Delphi was the ability for anyone to create a forum.

In late 1999, Delphi changed the rules for text-based access by abandoning the previous SprintNet dial-up numbers it had used, and instead made it necessary to access a local internet dialup service, and then get to Delphi via telnet. Telnet access had previously been an option; now it was a necessity for Apple II users.

The increasing dominance of the World Wide Web had a detrimental effect on Delphi as it had on the other classic online services. Delphi and another service called “Well Engaged” merged, calling the new company Prospero Technologies. Staff cuts were announced by the new company. By August 2000, Delphi announced that their service would be completely free by November. However, the text-based access it had previously offered would be discontinued (or at least unsupported). By late September, the text-only part of the service again began to experience failures, and by December 2000, the synchronization between the text and web portals was inconsistent and buggy. By mid-January 2001 it was not working at all, and the only way to access Delphi was via a web browser. On February 22 Delphi officially announced the end of their text service. Many remaining Apple II users fled to A2Central.com, which was trying to become a remaining haven of Apple II users and programmers.

Also during 2001, the Delphi.com domain name was sold to the Delphi Corporation, maker of auto parts. During the following year, Prospero restarted Delphi Forums, as web-only community of forums. The A2 Forum continued as it had before, still with Gary Utter as host, until his untimely passing in March 2004. Hangtime, a Syndicomm and A2-Central staff member from the early 1990s asked to take over as host, and continues in this position to this day. However, at the time of this writing in 2010 it is infrequently visited, and sometimes weeks pass with no new posts. However, there are old posts from as far back as 1998 that continue to be available for review.

APPLELINK-PERSONAL EDITION /
AMERICA ONLINE (1988 – 1994)

Beginning in May 1988, Apple Computer contracted with Quantum Computer Services to start a consumer version of its AppleLink network. Apple’s original network, in operation since 1985, had been used primarily for communication functions within Apple Computer and its various sites across the country, as well as a source of technical support for certified Apple developers. When their new consumer service, AppleLink-Personal Edition (ALPE) was introduced, they changed the name of the original network to AppleLink-Industrial Edition. Apple’s hope was to use ALPE as a method of providing better support to its customers.

AppleLink-Personal Edition was unique for an online computer service in its use of a custom terminal program. Rather than requiring the user, (possibly a novice) to spend a lot of time in learning how to use a terminal program, a modem, and ALPE, Quantum and Apple designed a special program that handled all the communications details, including the sign-on password. Each time that the user signed-off from ALPE, a new, randomly selected password was selected and saved on the ALPE disk for the next time. ALPE was aware of this password, and so the chances of someone breaking in on another user’s account and using time (and money!) was nearly eliminated.

The ALPE terminal program was intuitive, as was the use of the Macintosh (and Apple IIGS) desktop interface. Icons (pictures of desired functions) were selected with the mouse or cursor (depending on how you had it configured). Making the call and logging in were handled by the terminal program, transparently to the user. When the connection was made, a choice between Apple-specific services and ALPE general services was available. The general section was directed to entertainment, business services, online shopping, and general education. There was also a place for playing online games, alone or with other users. An “auditorium” could be used for members to attend conferences with special guests, allowing direct questions and answers with the guests.

The Apple Community section was the part most important to the dedicated Apple II (or Macintosh) user. Here direct contact with Apple Computer, Inc. was available (through the “Headquarters” icon), as well as other hardware and software vendors. Apple product announcements and information about products in testing could be found here, as well as direct access to Apple engineers and developers. There were Forums (special interest groups) for various aspects of Apple computing, Apple University (with courses on productivity, programming, and specialized software applications), and Software (library of available programs for downloading).

In 1990, AppleLink-Personal Edition was modified to connect with the services Quantum provided for other home computers, and the name was changed to America Online. It was still slightly less expensive than the other major online services, and because of the icon-based terminal software, still the easiest to use for the beginner.^[21] As the decade passed, however, the Apple II aspects of AOL began to decrease, as the Macintosh and Windows gained prominence. In November 1994 the Apple II version of its software was discontinued, although users of Macintosh or Windows computers could still access the Apple II forum. (For this reason, I give the end date of America Online as 1994, referring specifically to direct use of the service by Apple II computers.)

By the mid to late 1990s, AOL had become a significant player in the introduction of the casual computer user to online activities. Not only did the service offer a wide variety of activities within its “borders”, America Online also became a popular portal to the World Wide Web in general — so much so that in the eyes of some people, AOL was the Internet.

America Online became such a powerful company that, with the Dot-com “bubble” of the last half of the 1990s, it even merged with Time Warner. It was constantly sending out introductory disks to lure new users to the service, first with 3.5 inch floppy disks, and then CD-ROM disks. After the collapse of the “bubble”, all tech stocks saw a significant decline in value, and the importance of AOL to Time Warner also declined, to the point that by 2003 the “AOL” part of the name was dropped. The importance of AOL has also continued to decrease as public understanding of the World Wide Web has increased, and as more people access the Internet using a local service provider and a standard web browser.

THE WORLD WIDE WEB (1990 – Present)

One early use of the Internet that went beyond typical e-mail was the development of newsgroups. In 1979, two Duke university graduate students created a means to allow them to share information with the Unix community at large, while another student at the University of North Carolina wrote the first software program to handle a news. These messages differed from typical e-mail because they were sent out to large numbers of people at a time, rather than the usually smaller group of people to whom e-mail was typically sent. To receive messages that were broadcast to the group would require subscribing to that group, and any message sent to the group would go to all subscribing members.

The messages were sent out on the UUCP network (which was fee-based), and sometimes using the NNTP network (which was free). Although they started out with messages being held until specifically asked for by a subscribing system, it is now more common to have the news connections open continuously, so that a message appears almost immediately after it is posted.

With the widespread penetration of the Internet across the country in colleges and universities, many different groups and forums developed, including ones that were specific to the Apple II. Since the newsgroups on the Internet were already in existence when the Apple II was first released, and long before any home users with modems created single-user bulletin board systems, newsgroups probably represent the first online message “service” available for the Apple II. The original newsgroup dedicated to Apple II topics was called “comp.sys.apple”, although in 1990 its name was changed to “comp.sys.apple2″ to distinguish it from newsgroups that were dedicated to Apple Computer’s other major product, the Macintosh. Using Internet addresses, Apple II users were even able to communicate directly with employees of Apple who had accounts that were accessible to the Internet.^[22],^[23]

Unlike the commercial online services, which usually took steps to make sure that everyone participating “played nice”, Internet news groups tended to be anarchic, run by their own standards. With free access to literally anyone with an Internet-ready account, there were few rules of behavior that had to be observed. Anything from disagreements to arguments to all-out virtual fights could occur, and there was little that anyone could do (or wanted to do) to reign it in. Although it was (and still is to this day) a good source of information, it could be difficult to participate.

NOTES

1. ^[1] Derfler. Jr., Frank L. “Dial Up Directory”. Kilobaud Microcomputing Magazine, April 1980: 80-82. (reproduced on “An Interview With Ward Christensen and Randy Suess”, Larry’s Commodore Pages (Dec 2002) ↩
2. ^[2] Hafner, Katie & Matthew Lyon. Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1996: 13-14. ↩
3. ^[3] Hafner: 57-67. ↩
4. ^[4] Hafner: 176-186. ↩
5. ^[5] Hafner: 189. ↩
6. ^[6] Hafner: 219, 235. ↩
7. ^[7] Hafner: 219, 235. ↩
8. ^[8] Hafner: 236-237. ↩
9. ^[9] Hafner: 243-244. ↩
10. ^[10] Hafner: 243-244. ↩
11. ^[11] Archibald, Dale. “Apple On The Phone: What Is And What’s To Come In Telecommunications, Part II”, Softalk, March 1983, pp. 100-104. ↩
12. ^[12] Kohn, Joseph. “The Source.” Call-A.P.P.L.E. Jan 1989: 25-28. ↩
13. ^[13] Kohn, Joseph. E-mail. Feb 1992. ↩
14. ^[14] Utter, Gary. GEnie, A2 Roundtable, Feb 1992, Category 2, Topic 16. ↩
15. ^[15] Gerber, Carole Houze. “Online Yesterday Today And Tomorrow.” Online Today. CompuServe Information Service Newsletter, Jul 1989: 12-19. ↩
16. ^[16] Apfelstadt, Marc. “All About CompuServe.” Call-A.P.P.L.E. Nov 1988: 44-47. ↩
17. ^[17] Wikipedia entry on CompuServe ↩
18. ^[18] E’Sex, Lunatic. GEnie, A2 Roundtable, Feb 1992, Category 2, Topic 16. ↩
19. ^[19] Fillmore, Kent. GEnie, A2 Roundtable, Sep 1991, Category 2, Topic 16. ↩
20. ^[20] Weishaar, Tom. “All About GEnie: General Electric’s Online Information Service.” Call-A.P.P.L.E. Sep 1988: 46-50. ↩
21. ^[21] Cooper, Vince. “AppleLink-Personal Edition.” Call-A.P.P.L.E. Jul-Aug 1988: 8-13. ↩
22. ^[22] E’Sex, Lunatic. GEnie, A2 Roundtable, Feb 1992, Category 2, Topic 16. ↩
23. ^[23] Bouchard, J. GEnie, A2 Roundtable, Jan 1992, Category 12, Topic 7. ↩