What Is the Difference Between the Bulleton Board and the Internet?

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In the early Nineties, bulleton board systems were running on a telephone network connected through these motims. People working in universities or in research centres were experiencing a very different computing environment. They might have been using home computers, but dialing into time sharing systems or accessing eunuchs work stations. It wasn't possible for people on the other side to make that decision. There really was not widespread availability of t c p ip for home computers until 19 95 or 19 96. That's partly why the free and open source sophware conversation and the free sharing conversation that we talked about before weren't really connected.

Paris Marx is joined by Kevin Driscoll to discuss the networks and services built by volunteers and hobbyists on top of the telephone network before the internet took over the in the 1990s, and what it can teach us about the internet and social media today.

Kevin Driscoll is the author of The Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media and an associate professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. Follow Kevin on Twitter at @kevindriscoll.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

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