Pre-internet

Jak Boumans
EMR
 Electronic Media Reporting

In the beginning…
• In the beginning there was Internet
• WRONG
• There was pre-internet with information
systems and e-mail
• From 1945 computers came in use for
numerical tasks such as bookkeeping,
census, scientific calculation
• It aroused a slew of predictions
 Electronic Media Reporting

Predictions
• Electronic banking
• Electronic publishing
• Electronic books
• Translation machines
• Electronic commerce
• Car navigation

Memex
Vannevar Bush 1945
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Technological developments
• Mainframes, mini-computers and PCs
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Run-up to online
• Linking up machines by modems
• Networkprotocols (ASCII)
• Packet switch network technology
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Start online information industry

• USA, 1972
– Lockheed with Dialog
– SDC
– BRS (1978)
• Europe
– ESA/IRS
– FIZ
– Questel
– Pergamon/BOC-Datasolve
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Start online in NL
• 1967: Study computer editorial staff of
Excerpta Medica
• 1977: Online intermediairies: VOGIN
• 1977: legal database project by Kluwer
– Bull computer
– STATUS retrieval software
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Multiple technologies (1977-)

• ASCI
• Videotex
• CD-media
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ASCII
• ASCII databases and services
• E-mail
• Bulletin board system

• ASCII market: scientific and professional (Dialog,

SDC, ESA)
• ASCII consumer market: Compuserve, The Source
• E-mail: professional
• Bulletin board systems: hobby
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Videotex
• Prestel (UK)
• Viditel (NL)
• Bildschirmtext (GE)
• Minitel (FR)

• Market: SME and residential

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Packaged online
• Magnetic tape
• Floppy discs
• Optical media
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CD-media
• Laser disk
• CD-ROM
– Philips CARIN navigation
• CD-i
• Electronic Book
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Multiple technologies (1980-)

ASCII
ASCII databases ASCII prtocol Sci + buss
E-mail ASCII protocol Buss
BBS ASCII protocol Hobbyists
Videotex SME +
VTX VTX protocol residential
E-mail VTX prtocol Not used
Multimedia
MM MMPC consumer
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Confusion in the market

• 1988-1994
– ASCII vs videotex
– Videotex vs teletext
– Online vs offline
– OSI vs TCP/IP

– Spectacular rise of PC
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Rise of internet
• 1982: TCP/IP
• 1990: WWW
• 1992: first non-academic servers
• 1994: marketing
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One protocol
• Change-over from ASCII to Internet
• Change-over of Bulleting Board Systems in
favour of Internet (The Well)
• Disappearance of videotex
• Electronic books from mini-discs to internet

• One protocol: TCP/IP

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Why such a fast change-over?

• In less than 7 years more internet users than vtx users
• There was a rise of PC users between 1988 and 1994
• Traditional companies hardly noticed Internet and missed the
boat
• Traditional online was bound to state companies (PTT) or
private companies
• Traditional systems were authoritarian; internet offered freedom
of form and media
• There was an influx of students who had learned to work with
internet; the influx was larger in numbers than the users of
traditional information systems
• Microsoft bundled the first Internet Explorer in the upgrade of
Windows in 1996
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What became of the predictions?

• Electronic banking started to take off
• Electronic publishing
– Electronic newspapers
and magazines
– Electronic books
• Translation machines
– Systran
– Babel fish
• E-Commerce
• Car navigation
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Archeology of new media

• Need to document the history of new media
• Industrial heritage
• Need to conserve content products by
emulations e.g.; need to conserve content
related artefacts
• Make new generations
aware of Pre-internet
VOF Electronic Media Reporting

Jak Boumans BA, MDiv.

jak@euronet