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** Original area : "/FIDO2/FUTURE4FIDO"
** Original message from : August Abolins@2:221/1.58
** Original message to : All
** Original date/time : 18 Feb 23, 08:47 >==================================================================<

The Modem World: A Prehistory of Social Media | Hardcover
Kevin Driscoll
Yale University Press | Yale University Press
Computers / History / Internet / History / Modern - 20th Century
Published May 17, 2022

..chronicles how modems (and particularly BBSes) shaped and
defined the social online culture we have today.

There are plenty of references to Fido and Fidonet (and the
happenings of othernets based on FTN) throughout.

A few excerpts:

"Fido wasn't designed," Jennings had remarked to Byte... "It
was just built." p.68

"Forget the Fido code: the future of FidoNet depended on its
protocol. p.74

"Ben Baker, after "banging his head against the wall" and
"pleading" with users to try FidoNet, was thrilled by the
sudden enthusiasm for Echomail. Tom Jennings believed that
Echomail alone drove the adoption of FidoNet during the late
1980s. "It spread like wildfire," he recalled. "The traffic was
just enormous." New sysops were joining FidoNet specifically
to access Echomail. p.85

"While the internet discouraged people from thinking too much
about geography, FidoNet constantly reminded users that they
were people living in place. The unique net/node numbering
schema engendered a translocal imaginary of cyberspace as a
network of local communities rather than a global village or
virtual reality. Internet advocates envisioned cyberspace as an
escape from the physical world. FidoNet provided a means to
tunnel through it. p.89


About one third of the book comprises of Notes, and an Index.


--- OpenXP 5.0.57
* Origin: (618:500/23.10)