BBS The Documentary

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2 Cover
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[edit] General Information

Technology Documentary with no narration published by Jason Scott in 2005 - English language

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

BBS The Documentary

Long before the Internet escaped from the lab, connected the planet and redefined what it meant to use a computer there was a brave and pioneering band of computer users 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 else who knew the phone number of these computers could connect to them, leave messages, send and recieve files.... and millions did.

They called these places "Bulletin Board Systems", or BBSes. And 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.

Director Jason Scott spent three years traveling throughout the country documenting stories of the people and events that made the BBS what it was. The resulting 250 hours of footage were edited down into multiple episodes, each dealing with one aspect of the BBS. Ideal as either a teaching tool or a reminder of your own memories, the BBS Documentary Collection brings back this nearly-forgotten time in a way that will tell the story... one caller at a time.

[edit] 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.

[edit] SysOps

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

[edit] Make it Pay

Covers the BBS industry that rose in the 1980's and grew to fantastic heights before disappearing almost overnight.

[edit] FidoNet

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

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] No Carrier

The end of the dial-up BBS and its integration into the Internet

[edit] 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 interrupted lives and lost opportunity.