[9800] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Clarification re "Who (wa)s On (the 'net) First)"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Donelan)
Fri Jan 21 15:19:29 1994
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 1994 14:16:08 -0600 (CST)
From: Sean Donelan <SEAN@sdg.dra.com>
To: com-priv@psi.com
>MMore precisely, the question I believe we were discussing was
>
>"Who (what organization/site) was the first to offer end user
>shell accounts on systems with IP access to the Internet (modulo
>all them NSFnet, AUP and pre-CIX reachability issues :-( )
>to private individuals, without 'membership requirements' such
>as being an employee, student, etc?"
>
>And the answer is "The World, run by Software Tool and Die"
Actually I believe the answer might be someone like MIT. I remember
back in the 1981-1983 time frame I had several accounts on machines
connected to the ARPAnet just by asking (no affiliation, student,
employee, etc required). Heck I was just a high school student who
had taken a few college advance placement classes in computer science,
but was not enrolled at those schools at the time. No, I didn't break
in to those machines, things just seemed to be different back then.
A few years later some colonel in DCA? decided such users weren't
appropriate use of the ARPAnet and ordered the accounts "purged."
Jerry Pournelle, a columnist in BYTE, even wrote a column about his
losing his ARPAnet account at the same time.
--
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
Domain: sean@dra.com, Voice: (Work) +1 314-432-1100
