WEBVTT - What were online service providers? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:18.000 text style from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.040 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Poulette 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:22.759 and I am an editor here at how stuff works 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:25.280 dot com. Sitting across from me, as he always does, 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:29.840 is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. How do hi there? Oh wait, 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:34.159 that's sort of your line, yeah, sort of for hey there, Uh. Today, 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:36.479 we thought we would continue our we we've been doing 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:41.240 a few podcasts recently about sort of the predecessors of 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:44.159 what we think of as the Internet, and we were 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:47.240 kind of gonna go along those same lines, something that 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:52.360 that that consumers had access to before we had access 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:57.240 to the Worldwide Web, and that would be online service providers. 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.680 That's kind of the collective term for these sort of companies. 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:04.759 Online service providers actually were sort of the middle ground, 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:07.480 at least the way I think of it, between the 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:12.280 older bulletin board services and the Internet when caught on 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.919 as a commercial entity where people would actually have content 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.440 that they wanted to sign on um, whereas a bulletin 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:21.920 board was sort of a centralized hub where people would 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.960 log in and log out of for information. UH an 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:28.520 online service provider was like that, only much much larger 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.520 and Um, although you may be going, wait a minute, 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.840 online service providers, I really don't know anything about what 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.679 you're talking about. I think you probably have a few 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:42.319 coasters sitting around your home that used to belong to, 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:46.000 UH at least one of them. Yeah, well, let's let's 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:48.040 kind of talk about you know, you can make a 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.840 good point about how online service providers kind of bridge 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.240 the gap between the bbs s and and say the 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:57.560 current Internet. Um. So, if you think of a BBS, 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.000 most bbs as were run on a single computer, yes, 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.160 that had a modem line going connected to it, and 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.240 often you could only have a single devoted phone line 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:09.640 going to that BBS. BBS, by the way, stands for 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.240 bulletin board system, So if you wanted to access a 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:15.880 bulletin board system, you would have to dial into that 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:19.600 bulletin board and then you would have, assuming that no 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:21.799 one else was already connected to it, you could then 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.640 go in there, read the message board, maybe play a 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.200 short game. UM. You might even be limited to a 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:30.760 specific amount of time before it automatically kicks you off. 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.680 So that you don't just just a hog all the 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.560 time of the system. Right. These were These were small 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.600 and and usually operated by just one or two dedicated 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:43.760 folks who are interested in hosting a service like this. 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.440 So you wouldn't want to monopolize their the service because 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:50.600 then you wouldn't have anything else from anyone else to 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.000 uh enjoy. You would just be taking up all the time. 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.840 So these bulletin board services uh systems rather were uh 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.680 we're fairly primitive now, and online service provider was more 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:05.320 like a network. Um. You you actually had a couple 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.720 of steps here. You would again, you're using a modem, 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:09.560 and we're talking about the old dial up modems. So 0:03:09.600 --> 0:03:12.280 these are modems that are connected to phone lines, and 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:16.280 you would use the modem to connect to uh, well, 0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:20.640 it's a local area connection, you know. You would you 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:24.280 would dial into a local connection that would then connect 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:26.880 you to the overall network. UM. A lot of the 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:30.360 online service providers charged by the minute, or by the 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.959 hour or or the some of them later on would 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:38.000 charge by the month, right right, And UM yeah, basically 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.920 in this case, if you wanted to sign up for 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:44.000 service with an online service provider, UM, you would have 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:46.400 hope that they had a node local to you, So 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:48.880 they would have a pool what they would call a 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.480 pool of modems uh, sitting there and say the downtown 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.280 area of your of the local large city, and you 0:03:56.320 --> 0:03:59.040 would dial a local number and that would connect you 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.920 to via their own network to you know, the main servers, 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.640 and from there you could access the information, right because 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:09.480 otherwise you would have to pay twice. You would have 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:12.240 to pay once for the phone call, so you're paying 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.400 the phone operator one one price, and then you're paying 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:20.000 the the the operator, the online service provider um and 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.320 a subscription fee essentially to access their services. Now, these networks, 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.320 in many ways, especially later on as as they began 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.240 to evolve, started to resemble what we think of as 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:36.200 the Internet, except for one really really important distinction, which 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:40.080 is that they all remained independent of each other. Yes, 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.200 so if you belonged to one online service provider, so 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.040 let's say compy Serve that was a famous one, right, 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:49.560 and then let's say say Chris belongs to copy Serve, 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:53.360 but I belong to Prodigy. Now, both of those services 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.680 did have things like electronic mail for their members, but 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:00.800 the members could only email other members of that same service, 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:04.320 so I could not email Chris because we would be 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:06.919 on two different online service providers. There would not be 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:11.440 a crossover there because this is predating the era where 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:15.039 the Internet became available to the general public. At this point, 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.880 the Internet is still really the domain of uh, the 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:23.840 universities and the government. Right, I don't want Hopefully nobody 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.960 paused the podcast to write us an email and tell 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:29.400 us no, I had comput Serve and I was allowed 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.320 to email on the people. Yes, well there are still 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:34.839 comput Serve subscribers. That is, the service still exists, but 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:37.840 it's no longer an online service provider. Yes, later on, 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:39.960 as they became connected to the Internet, you could do this. 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:42.800 But what we're talking about is when these services started 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:47.159 because uh, compu Serve, for example, was founded in nine nine, 0:05:47.839 --> 0:05:50.680 which was before way before the Internet actually became a 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:56.160 popular service among the you know, uh everyday user. You know, well, yes, 0:05:56.320 --> 0:05:59.680 in sixty nine, they were still developing the protocols that 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.600 formed the backbone of the Internet, and the backbone as 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.040 far as the software site is concerned, at least, yeah, 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.640 that would allow it to be a major network. Right, 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.280 there were a few, very few systems connected to our 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:17.000 pinet at the time, there wasn't There really was no Internet. Internet. Um, 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:23.039 so yeah, we're talking about let's say, okay, so before 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:28.640 the Internet has really become a public utility in a way, 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:31.960 if you you know, using utility is still kind of misleading, 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.560 but just to to say that it's open to service 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:40.479 service service. So before that you had these private networks. 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:45.400 They're all self contained. Now, each private network gave its 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:50.160 members access to certain services that again mirror what we 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.160 find on the Internet, but what you would find on 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.400 one service would not necessarily be the same as what 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.320 you would find on another. So for example, if you 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.640 were a compu Serve customer and you logged in and 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:03.440 you wanted to check the news that was available through 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:05.880 various articles on copy Serve, it may not be the 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:07.880 same selection that you would find if you were a 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:12.400 Prodigy Serve customer. That's right. Yeah, a lot of these 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:17.120 online service providers had struck deals with different entities for 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:21.400 for providing content. Going going back to compu Serve um, 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.120 they were the hosts for the first online newspaper in 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:29.160 the United States, the Columbus Dispatch from Ohio. U signed 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:32.240 on in July of n Back when compu Serve had 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:37.480 about thirty six hundred total subscribers um, and so you know, 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:39.520 they were the they were the ones if you wanted 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.440 to to read the Columbus Dispatch, that's where you would go. 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.640 You would go to compu Serve and sign on and 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:48.239 uh a lot of other places, a lot of other sorry, 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:50.560 a lot of other newspapers signed on with compu Serve 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:55.600 after that. But uh, providers like Prodigy and America Online. Yeah, 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:57.800 that's the one we're talking about. With the coasters. Yes, 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:59.720 when they would send out lots and lots and lots 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.640 of disks and people began using them as coasters. People 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:06.679 began referring to the discs which they would get, uh 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.200 numerous discs in the mail and in cereal boxes and 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:15.520 in polly bags that came around windows of passing cars. 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:17.680 And it was it was crazy, yeah, that people used 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:22.520 to refer to them, uh and derisively as coasters. But no, 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.400 I mean they're basically if you wanted a service, say 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:27.360 you wanted subscription to The New York Times, you might 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:29.760 not be able to get it with one osp You 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.720 would have to sign on to another because that's the 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.200 one that had the content deal in place, which means 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:37.880 that you would have to pay another subscription fee to 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.440 another online service provider and something like we said. Sometimes 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.360 these early ones were charging by the hour, so you 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:47.640 would log on and it would depend not only on 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.880 how long you stayed on there, but the speed of 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:54.400 your modem connection. And these modum connection speeds the dial 0:08:54.440 --> 0:09:00.000 up ones were incredibly slow compared to broadband connection since 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.520 almost unimaginably slow for someone who has just started using 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:07.320 the Internet recently, because most people, even if you're using 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:11.160 a dial up are traveling at blistering speeds compared to 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.360 the early ones and um and most of the early 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:18.160 online service providers were strictly text based because of this. 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.280 I mean, it wasn't just that you know, graphics would 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.360 were challenging to to transmit over lines. It's just that 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.559 the speed of data transmission was so low that it 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:32.280 would take forever for you to download a picture. So most, 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:36.520 uh most of these were text based at least early on. 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.920 Only a few would start to develop graphic user interfaces 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.800 over time, and those graphic user interfaces UH in the 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:46.960 late are really in the early nineties were very primitive 0:09:47.000 --> 0:09:49.240 compared to what you would see today. I mean, the 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:53.400 Worldwide Web really has redefined, um, the way that we 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.560 view interfaces like this, and I think, uh, you know, 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.880 for someone who is who is probably new to the 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.079 Internet in the last ten years or so, if you 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.240 went back to look at some of the interfaces that 0:10:06.520 --> 0:10:10.880 these OSPs used back in the day, so to speak, um, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:15.320 you would go, are you kidding me? Yeah? No. But 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.000 for for those of us who grew up during this 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:20.520 this time or who were using computers during this time, 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:25.360 it was really an exciting time because before then, everything 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.480 you wanted to do on your computer was was restricted 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:30.400 just to your computer, and you would have to go 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:32.559 and you would get software and you'd run the software 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:34.680 on your computer, but that's it. It was a self 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:37.439 contained system and there was no connection to the outside world. 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:40.960 The modem broke that door open. And first it broke 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:43.959 it open with just having computer to computer communication, which 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:48.000 was already revolutionary for those of us who had personal computers, 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.080 and that's where the Bolton board system kind of grew 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.720 out of, out of that culture. But getting to the 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:55.959 online service provider where suddenly you had access to to 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:59.080 content and you didn't have to go out and buy 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.520 a disk and at the disc into your computer to 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:04.280 to look at that content. Yes, you did have to 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.720 have the software on your computer so that you could 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.120 access these online service providers. Right. It was essentially a 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.280 client that you would use that you would dial into 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.120 something and then everything would be delivered through and you'd 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.920 be looking at it through the client. But you wouldn't 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.640 have to say, get go out and get a new, 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.480 UH encyclopedia type of program in order to see the 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.120 latest information on stuff. You could log into this online 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.880 service provider and see it. And at the time this 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.120 was revolutionary, you know. Before again you would just have 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.199 to wait till someone published something. You would have to 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:37.719 go out and buy it, and then you would look 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:42.400 at it locally on your computer. UM. And were you 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:48.040 UH or your family UH customers of an online service provider? Um, my, 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:52.240 my wife's family. Several of them had actual accounts with 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:57.400 OSPs personally. Since I started using the internet in actually 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.600 I was using bitnet, I should say, UM, I moved 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.000 directly to the Internet via a shell account. I was 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.800 using a shell account for a long time, which for 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.680 for the uninitiated is basically a terminal account where you're 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:14.480 typing commands in and UH, I had a Shell account, 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.439 which is Unix based. I believe on most services anyway, 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:23.440 or at the time it was UM until the late nineties, 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.880 UH so I really hadn't and I went from a 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.720 Shell account directly to the World Wide Web without going 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:34.160 the OSP route right uh Now, as my family actually 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:38.240 we were customers of Genie. I s. The General Electric 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:43.000 had a web service called Genie and UH Capital g 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:48.320 Capital e Yes and Genie UH. It offered things like 0:12:48.400 --> 0:12:52.400 message boards and offered email. Among Genie users, there were 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:54.720 games that you could play. Some of them were like 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:56.880 they even had like flight simulators, but they also had 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:01.000 the MUDs or multi user dungeons, yes, in which several 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:05.439 players could all be playing this this text based adventure 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.080 game all at the same time. Some of the MUDs 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.560 would even allow you to interact directly with players in 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.280 in more meaningful ways than just being able to talk 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:16.600 to each other. You could trade items or or even 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.679 some of them had the primitive player versus player kind 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:22.920 of interactions where you could engage in combat with each other. 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:27.360 But the reason why we went with Genie specifically was 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:33.320 because of their forums were called round tables. Now, Genie 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.920 happened to be a very popular service among a very 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:43.839 niche audience, and that would be science fiction authors. Now, 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.440 my parents are both science fiction authors. So my father 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:49.640 in particular, at the time he was he was the 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:53.560 published author. Mom had not written anything with Dad at 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:57.360 yet at that point. Um, but Dad was a published 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:01.160 science fiction author and used Genie to correspond with other 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.280 science fiction authors. Um. He was a member of SIFUA, 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.520 which is Science Fiction Writers of America, and through Genie 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.440 they could stay in touch with each other in a 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:12.000 much more effective way than that, you know, sending letters 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:17.160 or or a corresponding and you know traditional methods. So UM, 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:21.400 so I actually got familiar with online service providers fairly early. UM. 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:25.640 I also learned very early that uh all most of 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:27.640 these meant that I could only be on for a 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:29.840 very short amount of time because otherwise I would get 0:14:29.840 --> 0:14:33.359 in trouble for running up the bill. Yeah. Although eventually 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.200 most of these online service providers UH in order to 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:40.360 stay competitive, moved to monthly fees as opposed to hourly 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:45.680 fees because um there were a lot of people were 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:47.480 getting more and more accustomed to the idea of having 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.320 unlimited access for a flat rate as opposed to having 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.080 to pay on an hourly basis. Yes, and back then, 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:58.720 of course, unlimited access really didn't mean that much bandwidth still, 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:02.680 because we're talking more slee text, some primitive graphics, and 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.680 really your connection speeds were only so fast anyway, so 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:09.240 it wasn't like you were jamming up the networks by 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:14.480 you know, accessing the the services right right there weren't 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.760 a lot of there weren't a lot of people uploading 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:22.040 and downloading things like, um, movies, music or books, because 0:15:22.080 --> 0:15:25.400 that would have taken a few years, a long long time. 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:28.840 It would have been faster to go out there and 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:32.920 recreate the movie from scratch. I think you're probably let's 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.960 get a cast together. I'm almost certain that's what what 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:38.640 those kids who did h Raiders Lust Arc. We're thinking 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.000 we could download it, but just be faster if we 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:46.600 just performed the darn thing. Yep. Um yeah, and and 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:51.720 and I basically got my start in the internet world, um, 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:55.560 actually working in the Internet world as a sales representative 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.560 for a national Internet service provider. And one of the 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:00.560 very first things this was in ninety six, and one 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:02.760 of the very first things that I had to answer 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:05.120 for a lot of people was, you know, why should 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:07.960 I sign up with you, and they would come from 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:10.960 a o L or Prodigy or compute serve, and they 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:15.600 didn't understand the difference between an Internet connection, uh, you know, 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.680 to the Internet itself versus being on one of those services. 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.040 And to some degree there wasn't a connection. In a 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.280 lot of cases, the content they wanted it was probably 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:28.480 limited to another osp that they didn't have access to, 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:32.000 but it wasn't It really wasn't long the mid to 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:36.400 late I mean, um, the OSPs put up a good 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.520 fight for a while because they didn't necessarily their protocols 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.200 were not t c P I P they they all 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.160 had a proprietary protocols. Yeah, most of them were packet 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.200 switching protocols, but it wasn't the same sort of packet 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.880 switching that she's fine and t c P I P R. 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.080 So the thing is they weren't really compatible with information 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.000 on the Internet. And the thing is, I think it 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:01.680 wasn't necessarily uh the sps out selling them. I mean 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:03.520 a lot of the I s p s offered unlimited 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:09.040 access around that time. Um, that was unusual for people 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.040 like a o L. But at the same time, there 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.520 was content available from the other services, and I think, uh, 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:20.280 the OSPs gradually felt pressure to open their networks up 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.719 to the Internet so that you could get things like 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:25.800 US net news and uh, you know, some of the 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:29.800 web content, because the Worldwide Web and an OSP are 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:34.000 not the same thing, right, right, So some OSPs started 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:36.720 to become gateways to the Internet. Yes, so you could 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.520 access both their proprietary content or the content that they 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.480 had partnered with other providers to give to their members, 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.520 as well as access the wider array of content you 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:49.600 could find on the Internet, which was almost like open 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:54.359 just for public consumption, um and so uh, companies like 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.600 a o L and Prodigy in particular, really and even 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.639 compu serve really tried to leverage the sort of uh, 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:05.359 this sort of content to to attract people and say, look, 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.119 you know, yeah, you could go to an I s P, 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:11.399 but we're providing that service already, and you get access 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:13.080 to this content that you're not going to find on 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:16.720 the Internet. Yeah. That was their big compelling argument right now. Granted, 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.240 and that worked for a little while, but it was 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:22.480 definitely a short term thing. So for OSPs to survive, 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:26.240 they really only had one choice, and that was to 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.680 to evolve into becoming an I s P. And Internet 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.800 service provider, because if they didn't do that, eventually the 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:39.560 content that had been uh exclusive to that particular provider 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:42.000 was going to make it onto the Internet one way 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:45.359 or another. Because the companies that they were making partnerships 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.919 with could they they saw that the where the future was, 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:50.639 and that the future was that they needed to have 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:54.119 an online presence of their own on the Internet, and 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.959 instead of just partnering with an OSP where their content 0:18:57.040 --> 0:19:00.399 is locked up behind this this uh this this wall, 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.920 they wanted to have their more control of their own presentation. 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.359 And so you started to see these companies create websites 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:11.280 and uh that was that was sort of the beginning 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.480 of the end of the USP business. Yeah, it was. 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:17.240 It was one of those things where people could say, well, 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.880 you know, I've got access to this company's nineteen million subscribers, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.879 but look how fast the Internet is growing. And you 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.320 know if I if I make my content available on 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.240 the Internet as well, that I could probably get even 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:34.719 more subscribers. Um. And that's that's gradually the way it's gone. Um. 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:39.080 Most of the biggest online service providers still exist in 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.080 some form or at least confuser event a O L 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:46.240 of course, UH do exist still UM, but a lot 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.000 of the smaller ones that my genie are no longer 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:54.960 with us, at least not in their original form UM. 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:57.080 And you know, I, as we've been talking about it, 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:02.720 I've been thinking about how OSP sort of are similar 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.960 to the net neutrality argument we're having now, where if 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.720 you are UM, you know, if you belong to I 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.359 s P A UH, you're a subscriber of the Internet 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.960 service provider A, you have access to everything on the Internet, 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:18.000 but you might have special access to certain types of 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:22.040 content that you know, people from other Internet service providers 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.479 may not have access to you, or may have limited 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.840 access to or even slower access to UM. And that's 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:30.400 sort of it's sort of in the same same vein 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:32.520 when you think about it, because you know, if there's 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:38.240 a UH perception of exclusivity that belongs to an OSP, 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.040 if you think back to the time, Hey, if you 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:41.800 sign up with us, you get all these great things 0:20:41.800 --> 0:20:44.199 that you can't get anywhere else. Well, you know, if 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:48.120 if net neutrality UH goes by the wayside, and we 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.679 uh you know, the Internet service providers are allowed to 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.440 regulate the flow of traffic on their own networks UM, 0:20:55.560 --> 0:21:00.720 then they will be able to claim exclusivity again. Sure, yeah, 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.679 and and you know that has its own benefits and 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:07.520 its own drawbacks. The biggest drawback for me, at least 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:12.720 is that with online service providers you they weren't as regional. 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.680 You could pretty much find a way of being a 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:20.320 customer of one of these different or multiple online service 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:24.640 providers if you really wanted to, uh, in any major market. Now, granted, 0:21:24.880 --> 0:21:28.760 the folks who live in rural parts of the United 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:34.560 States and uh, you know, to expand that across the globe, UM, 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:38.399 they often might be more limited because when we're talking 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.040 back in the good old days, you're talking about you know, 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.359 again a local phone call. You would have to hope 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:47.000 that whatever service provider you wanted had a UM had 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:50.280 had modems that were within that local area code UM, 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.320 and not all of them did. But in most major 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.399 markets you would find representations of any of these osp 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:58.200 s there you would be able to be a customer 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:00.680 of any of those, Whereas today, with I s p s, 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:02.920 at least the major I s p s, you may 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:06.400 not have that choice. So it may be that let's 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.920 let's just do this is just an example. Uh, Let's 0:22:09.960 --> 0:22:14.800 say that time Warner has access to this amazing array 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:17.879 of content, but but not not everything like you know 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.320 it's got, but they have their own And then Comcast 0:22:20.359 --> 0:22:23.400 has a different selection of equally amazing stuff, but it's 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:27.040 different stuff. You might not live in an area that 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:29.919 has access to both Comcast and Time Warner. You may 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:32.359 have access to only one or the other, which means 0:22:32.400 --> 0:22:37.520 that you don't really have choice. You're forced upon a 0:22:37.720 --> 0:22:42.800 selection of Internet sites or in Internet services, uh the 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:45.440 and you have to be happy with that. You you're 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:47.960 not going to have the choice of of company B. 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:51.240 Which is why net neutrality is a big deal because 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:55.320 while well it's impossible to say that that being an 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:57.320 I s P, you know that you're not really a 0:22:57.359 --> 0:23:02.160