From: bigmongo1963@biteme.com   
      
   https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/ward-christensen-bbs-inventor-and-   
   architect-of-our-online-age-dies-at-age-78/   
      
   Ward Christensen, BBS inventor and architect of our online age, dies at   
   age 78   
      
   Christensen kick-started online culture by inspiring thousands of hobbyist   
   communities.   
      
   Benj Edwards – Oct 14, 2024 4:05 PM   
      
   On Friday, Ward Christensen, co-inventor of the computer bulletin board   
   system (BBS), died at age 78 in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Christensen,   
   along with Randy Suess, created the first BBS in Chicago in 1978, leading   
   to an important cultural era of digital community-building that presaged   
   much of our online world today.   
      
   Friends and associates remember Christensen as humble and unassuming, a   
   quiet innovator who never sought the spotlight for his groundbreaking   
   work. Despite creating one of the foundational technologies of the digital   
   age, Christensen maintained a low profile throughout his life, content   
   with his long-standing career at IBM and showing no bitterness or sense of   
   missed opportunity as the Internet age dawned.   
      
   "Ward was the quietest, pleasantest, gentlest dude," said BBS: The   
   Documentary creator Jason Scott in a conversation with Ars Technica. Scott   
   documented Christensen's work extensively in a 2002 interview for that   
   project. "He was exactly like he looks in his pictures," he said, "like a   
   groundskeeper who quietly tends the yard."   
      
   Tech veteran Lauren Weinstein initially announced news of Christensen's   
   passing on Sunday, and a close friend of Christensen's confirmed to Ars   
   that Christensen died peacefully in his home. The cause of death has not   
   yet been announced.   
      
   Prior to creating the first BBS, Christensen invented XMODEM, a 1977 file   
   transfer protocol that made much of the later BBS world possible by   
   breaking binary files into packets and ensuring that each packet was   
   safely delivered over sometimes unstable and noisy analog telephone lines.   
   It inspired other file transfer protocols that allowed ad-hoc online file   
   sharing to flourish.   
      
   Dawn of the BBS   
      
   Christensen and Suess came up with the idea for the first computer   
   bulletin board system during the Great Blizzard of 1978 when they wanted   
   to keep up with their computer club, the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists’   
   Exchange (CACHE), when physical travel was difficult. Beginning in January   
   of that year, Suess assembled the hardware, and Christensen wrote the   
   software, called CBBS.   
      
   "They finished the bulletin board in two weeks but they called it four   
   because they didn't want people to feel that it was rushed and that it was   
   made up," Scott told Ars. They canonically "finished" the project on   
   February 16, 1978, and later wrote about their achievement in a November   
   1978 issue of Byte magazine.   
      
   Their new system allowed personal computer owners with modems to dial up a   
   dedicated machine and leave messages that others would see later. The BBS   
   concept represented a digital version of a push-pin bulletin board that   
   might flank a grocery store entrance, town hall, or college dorm hallway.   
      
   Christensen and Suess openly shared the concept of the BBS, and others   
   began writing their own BBS software. As these programs grew in complexity   
   over time, the often hobbyist-run BBS systems that resulted allowed   
   callers to transfer computer files and play games as well as leave   
   messages.   
      
   BBSes introduced many home computer users to multiplayer online gaming,   
   message boards, and online community building in an era before the   
   Internet became widely available to people outside of science and   
   academia. It also gave rise to the shareware gaming scene that led to   
   companies like Epic Games today.   
      
   A low-key giant   
      
   Suess died in 2019, and with the passing of both BBS originators, we find   
   ourselves at the symbolic end of an era, although many BBSes still run   
   today. These are typically piped through the Internet instead of a dial-up   
   telephone line.   
      
   While Christensen himself was always humble about his role in creating the   
   first BBS, his contributions to the field did not go unrecognized. In   
   1992, Christensen received two Dvorak Awards, including a lifetime   
   achievement award for "outstanding contributions to PC   
   telecommunications." The following year, the Electronic Frontier   
   Foundation honored him with the Pioneer Award.   
      
   Professionally, Christensen enjoyed a long and successful career at IBM,   
   where he worked from 1968 until his retirement in 2012. His final position   
   at the company was as a field technical sales specialist.   
      
   But mostly, Christensen kept a low profile.  When visiting online   
   communities in his later years, Ward presented no ostentation, and there   
   was no bragging about having made much of it possible. This amazed Scott,   
   who said, "I was always fascinated that Ward kept a Twitter account, just   
   messing around."   
      
   Scott feels like humility, openness, and the spirit of sharing are key   
   legacies that Christensen has left behind.   
      
   "It would be like a person who was in a high school band saying, 'Eh,   
   never really got into touring, never really had the urge to record albums   
   or become a rock star,'" Scott said.  "And then later people come and go,   
   'Oh, you made the first [whatever] in your high school band,' but that   
   sense of being at that locus of history and the fact that his immediate   
   urge was to share all the code everywhere—that's to me what I think people   
   should remember about this guy."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)