[SLUG] Televisual Entertainment

[Martin Webb]

Stephen O'Neill wrote:

> Seeing as we're not watching a 'film' next time, what should I put up 
> on the website as the description for what's going on at the next 
> meeting?
>
> Steve 

Well, the series of video clips is of people involved with the early 
days of bulletin boards, in the days before there was an Internet - just 
telephone lines, electronic bits and a will to poke them to see what 
they would do.  There was probably an ARPANET at that time, but that was 
not really available to these guys.  Out of pure interest, they put 
together electronic kit such as modulator-demodulators, wrote software 
to go with the kit, invented, of necessity because they didn't exist, 
protocols, sent out messages, and, maybe, just maybe, six months later, 
on a teletext machine as like as not, not a screen as standard-out, got 
a reply.  They then got very excited.  From our point of view, this is 
interesting because of the pioneering spirit, seeing where the Internet 
came from, seeing how someone inventing a protocol for his own use came 
to influence the Internet as we know it now, and seeing the basis for 
(similarity to?) our own interest (passion?) now.  That's how I see it, 
but it's not that snappy is it?
What about "Fascinating look into the early days of the Internet, 
portraying how game-playing and wild interest in early electronic 
devices has influenced the Internet we know today"?  How's that for 
ad-speak?
Martin