BBS the Documentary

- AN INFOFALLOUT RELEASE -
IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE DOCUMENTARY ARCHIVE
TITLE: BBS: The Documentary - Part 1 - Baud
SOURCE: DVD
RIPPER: Acey the Sexiest Hippie
CODEC: XviD 1.0.3
RLS DATE: 6/12/2005
RELATED URL: http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/

RELEASE NOTES/DESCRIPTION:
the releases of the rest of the episodes in the series will be staggered.
there are 8 eps. we're sorry we have to stagger the releases of the episodes
like this, but several of our 100mbit affil sites are currently down. :(

Long before the Internet escaped from the lab, connecting the planet and
redefining what it meant to meant to be a computer user...

...there was a brave and pioneering band of hobbyists who spent their time,
money and sanity setting up their home computers and phone lines to welcome anyone who called. By
using a modem, anyone who knew the phone number of these machines could
connect to them, leave messages, play games, send and receive files in a
virtual community... and millions did.

They called these places ""Bulletin Board Systems"", or BBSes. Their collections
of messages, rants thoughts and dreams became the way that an entire
generation learned about being online.

When the Internet grew in popularity in the early 1990s, the world of the BBS
faded, changed, and became a part of the present networked world -- but it
wasn't the same.

In the Summer of 2001, Jason Scott, a computer historian and proprietor of
the textfiles.com, noticed the lack of materials covering the history of
these BBSes. So, he took it upon himself to produce what turned out to be one
of the most comprehensive histories on the subject.

Four years, thousands of miles of travelling, and over 200 interviews later,
""BBS: The Documentary"", a series of 8 episodes about the history of the BBS,
is now available. Spanning 3 DVDs and totalling five and a half hours,
this documentary consists of eight episodes each covering different aspects
of this important story in the annals of computer history.

Ideal as either a teaching tool or a reminder of things past, the BBS
Documentary Collection brings back this nearly-forgotten time in a way that
will tell the story... one caller at a time.

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EPISODES
Baud introduces the story of the beginning of the BBS, including interviews
with Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, who used a snowstorm as an inspiration
to change the world.

Sysops and Users introduces the stories of the people who used BBSes, and lets
them tell their own stories of living in this new world.

Make it Pay covers the BBS industry that rose in the 1980's and grew to
fantastic heights before disappearing almost overnight.

Fidonet covers the largest volunteer-run computer network in history, and the
people who made it a joy and a political nightmare.

Artscene tells the rarely-heard history of the ANSI Art Scene that thrived in
the BBS world, where art was currency and battles waged over nothing more
than pure talent.

HPAC (Hacking Phreaking Anarchy Cracking) hears from some of the users of
""underground"" BBSes and their unique view of the world of information and
computers.

No Carrier wishes a fond farewell to the dial-up BBS and its integration into
the Internet.

Compression tells the story of the PKWARE/SEA legal battle of the late 1980s
and how a fight that broke out over something as simple as data compression
resulted in waylaid lives and lost opportunity.