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Dial Up Directory by Frank 1. Derfler. Jr. the telecommunications column from the April 1980 issue of Kilobaud Microcomputing Magazine, pages 80-82.. The people who bring you Computer Bulletin Board Services are a diverse lot. Their motivations range from purely mercenary to ultimately humanitarian. Some feel a strong responsibility for the material that is disseminated over their systems. Others believe in a "free press" and allow an uncensored flow of data to pass through their disks. The CBBS concept seems to be a spin-off of the commercial computer mail schemes, but it is much different in implementation. This month we will talk about these ideas and others with the two men who can truly be called the fathers of CBBS, Ward Christensen and Randy Suess. I talked to Ward and Randy during a trip to Chicago. I went to Randy's home, which also houses the Chicago CBBS. We edged our way into Randy's basement, and while the system's disks clicked and whirled, Ward's disembodied voice joined us over a speakerphone from his home south of the city. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microcomputing: Your own article in the November 1978 Byte gave an excellent technical description of the Chicago-style CBBS. What about the personal side? What were your goals and motivations in establishing the first of what has grown to be a series of systems'? Ward: My motivation arrived on the morning of January 16, 1978, coincidentally with the great Chicago snowstorm. I got up to find that my alley was impassable and started to think about more sedentary things. Randy (pictured): We had previously both developed remote terminal operation for our systems so that we could use them when we were away from home. We started leaving messages for each other, and the idea grew. Ward: Also, we e had a regular physical bulletin board for our computer club, and computerizing it was an obvious move. Microcomputing: Were you motivated by the mailbox services available on the ARPA net, PLATO or other commercial systems? Ward: Honestly, I didn't know they existed at the time. I understand that we have reinvented the wheel by using some similar control codes, but I didn't know about them then. We started out with five functions. We made new version changes almost weekly in the beginning, but the system has stayed pretty simple. Randy: We used our own equipment, too. Eventually though, we had to dedicate a system so that we could provide full-time service. Now several manufacturers have donated equipment for use and evaluation. (CBBS circa 1980 pictured) We have used every one of the S-100 modem boards available. Microcomputing: Any comments about modem boards? Randy: All of the manufacturers have been great. D.C. Hayes has been responsive to comments and recently helped the Dallas CBBS out with a problem. We are now running the Potomac Micro-Magic and are very happy with it. Microcomputing: Is your user population still growing? Ward: We started out using a Teletype for logging, and Randy used to send me hundreds of feet of paper at a time. Now we log on a separate disk. We have had over 11,000 users and are getting ten to 15 new folks calling in a day. Microcomputing: Well, I can testify that you have the busiest phone number of any system. Randy: The average caller stays on about 20 minutes, but expert users can get in and out in about five minutes. Our peak traffic loads are from 9 PM until early morning. We placed the system in a central Chicago location to cut down on the toll costs for our users, but it doesn't seem to matter. We get calls from across the country. Microcomputing: What is your longest-distance user? Randy: You have called from Hawaii, Frank, but we have had people log in from Australia. We have some European users too. Microcomputing: Well, a call to a busy CBBS is a quick way for people out of the country to get a feel for the latest microcomputing news and developments. With all of those diverse users, do you often have to play the role of policeman and censor the material? Ward: Surprisi
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