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Dr. Vinton Cerf: The Past, Present, and Future Internet |
01h:13m:16s
| 27mb
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Dr. Cerf's accompliments among the early days of the Internet are well-known and
legion (a co-creator of the TCP/IP protocol, often referred to as the "Father of
the Internet", heavily responsible for the Internet's decentralized and open
architecture), and in this special recording, he discusses the Internet Society
and relates the importance of the Internet in the context of BBSes. This talk
centers primarily around his impressions of the growth of the Internet and his
speculation of where the Internet was headed, and includes some nice narrative
about how and why the Internet got started. He answers a number of questions
related to the subject.
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Lance Rose and Others: Legal Issues Session
| 01h:26m:52s
| 30mb
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Lance Rose ran a website called "NetLaw" and wrote a book of the same name.
During the early 90's, Mr. Rose published a large number of essays and articles related to
Bulletin Board Systems and Sysop liability. Several celebrated cases during this time were either
revealed in his essays or highly publicized by passing along articles he wrote. Celebrated for
speaking straight-on and avoiding heavy terms, he holds court over this collection of speakers.
Joining Mr. Rose are Mike Godwin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
David Johnson of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering (who also became a board
member and Chair at the EFF), Pete Kennedy of George and Donaldson (who defended Steve Jackson
Games in their lawsuit against the Secret Service), and Ken Smiley (heavy poster on the Fidonet
BBSLAW conference at the time).
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John Coate and Others: Building Online Community
| 01h:23m:59s
| 29mb
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The speakers are actually John Coate and Cliff Figallo, co-workers
at the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, or the WELL, one of the most celebrated of all the
BBSes. This talk centers around what constitutes an online community, how to nurture it,
and what contitutes a growing or shrinking community. The two speakers do a good job of
trading off (as might be expected, since they'd worked together for years at the WELL before
this speech was recorded) and a large range of subjects are covered. John Coate wrote a
paper called "An Innkeeper in Cyberspace" which covers many of
the aspects of running an online community at the WELL. As an extra bonus, the session is
prefaced by Jack Rickard, who declares it one of his favorite sessions and gives a good
introduction to the WELL.
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Sheri Robert and Others: Guerrilla Marketing Your BBS
| 01h:13m:32s
| 26mb
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It seems rather strange to have the Director of Marketing for Galacticomm (at this point a very
successful BBS software company) conduct this talk, but she steers the panel well. Attending
speakers include David Carlson (Sysop of the Electronic Trib BBS),
Alex Nason (Sysop of the Free Financial Network BBS), Robert Michnik (Pro-Star Plus BBS), and
Dean Kerl (The Garbage Dump BBS). Dean is a highlight, tackling the subject brightly and
energetically, and pressing on everyone how every single marketing opportunity could be
squeezed. All of the speakers have something interesting to say, and the spirit of the
money-making BBS is very alive among the participants.
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Anne Wells Branscomb - The Government, The Internet and the BBS
| 00h:55m:55s
| 20mb
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Anne Wells-Branscomb had been a pioneer in the academic field of Information Resources,
writing a large number of books and articles regarding what at various times was called
the "Information Infrastructure" or the "Global Communication Network". She was a
member of many different committees regarding law and policy in cyberspace, and
some of her later books included "Who Owns Information? (1994) and "Emerging Law
on the Electronic Frontier (1998)". In this lecture, she describes some of the major
issues facing BBSes as they try to find a place in relation to law. Like anyone
bringing up the subject of legal liability in BBSes, her reception is somewhat chilled,
but she covers many important aspects of BBSes and shows a solid knowledge of the
issues involved. Dr. Vinton Cerf makes a surprise appearance as a question from the
audience. Sadly, Ms. Wells-Branscomb died in the Fall of 1997, leaving behind several
books on the subject of information technology and law she had been working on during
the last few years of her life.
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David Johnson and Others - Privacy and Censorship.mp3
| 01h:05m:33s
| 23mb
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Joining Mr. Johnson on stage are Dan Linton (Sysop of the Software Creations BBS), Lance Rose (Author
of NETLAW, a book about online legal issues), Larry Wood (Administrator
of the Graphics Forums on Compuserve), and Bill Schneck (Associate Senior Counsel for Prodigy). Each
of these panelists weigh in with their thoughts on the two (somewhat related) issues, with particularly
lively thoughts from Larry Wood. This tape had begun to deteriorate and has a bit of a muffled
sound, but is understandable throughout the presentation. Additionally, there are large portions of
the latter half of the tape where audience members ask long-winded questions away from any microphones.
A good set of insights into the role of a BBS Sysop or Administrator in keeping their BBS on-topic
without stepping on the writings of their users.
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Alan D. Bryant - TBBS and Fidonet.mp3
| 00h:54m:30s
| 19mb
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Alan D. Bryant, director of marketing at eSoft (makers of TBBS) and later the author of
"Creating a Successful Bulletin Board System", gives an excellent introduction to Fidonet
and the unique aspects of this network, and then goes into the process of getting TBBS to
work with it. On the whole, the talk essentially disclaims complete assistance with the
process of hooking to Fidonet, but promises more ease in the future. The clear and concise
introduction to Fidonet at the beginning is well worth the price of admission. Unfortunately,
he refers several times to illustrations explaining the Fidonet network, which can't be
seen. Several long-winded questions are asked off-microphone.
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Tim Pfeiffer - Credit Card Merchant Accounts
| 01h:03m:26s
| 22mb
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Mr. Pfeiffer was a programmer with Teleflora (later Teleflora/Creditline). He describes,
from start to finish, all the aspects of Credit Card charging, and then effectively
relates it to the unique aspects of a BBS-related business. He knows his subject,
and it translates to a nearly uninterrupted lecture on the whole process. Among the
highlights are his discussions and warnings about the ups and downs of charging
BBS memberships to credit cards, with a discussion of chargebacks from fraud, and how
to deal with dissatisfied customers. He is asked a series of very technical questions
by the audience and answers them well.
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Chris Ambler - FSUUCP
| 01h:15m:21s
| 27mb
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Chris Ambler of UUPlus Development discusses his program FSUUCP, which will function
as a Usenet and Mail Gateway systems. He provides an introduction to UUCP and talks
about the unique problems of working with MS-DOS and bringing in the mail to work with
various BBS programs. The discussion becomes lively as various audience members ask
him exacting technical questions and he answers them all. The audio sounds
distorted but is understandable. Ambler has no hestitation to answer any question,
and by the last half is answering extremely involved questions.
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Jack Rickard and Phil Becker - BBSing for Profit
| 01h:28m:56s
| 32mb
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Many documents and articles about the various BBSCONs refer to it or parts of it
as the "Jack and Phil" show, a reference to Jack Rickard (Boardwatch) and Phil
Becker (eSoft), co-organizers of the show. This two-part collection of speeches are
shows these two gentlemen at the top of their game, giving their thoughts on what
makes a successful BBS. More a marketing seminar and pep-rally than anything else,
all the aspects of a BBS are covered, describing what makes it a place people want
to call again and again. The crowd is delighted, the two speakers trade off
effortlessly, and the knowledge just flows and flows.
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