Old Timer Sharing

 Old Timer Sharing

Before we had the World Wide Web and Social Media how did we share our “collections” or our knowledge about our own computers and software?

These days we can look up all sorts of information about a particular model of computer no matter how old it is. We just open a browser and use a search engine to search for our model and up pops a long list of places on the web where we can learn more about our computers.

If we have a “collection” of computers and software we can search for other people who have shared their collection and placed it on the web or on a social media sharing site. We can see pictures and read and add comments. All of this is only a few taps and clicks away on our always on computers attached to the web through a broadband internet connection.

But before we had this type of communication “super-highway” what did we do when we wanted to share our collections and interests in computers?

In the early days of hobbyist computing we had what we called Computer User Groups. Long before it was common to connect “on-line” through the telephone, or early internet type networks, we had local community “in-person” user groups. These were groups of people who got together at regular intervals at some local venue, like a community center or college meeting room, and shared their knowledge of their computers and software.

Usually, these “hobbyists” were using computers in their day job and were looking for others who used the same computers and software. Some of these people worked for huge corporations and others worked as small businesses or were home users. 

In the early days of “personal” computers there were many different types of computers and software and they did not all easily “talk” to one another. The operating systems and storage media (tape cassettes, floppy and hard disks, etc.) were incompatible and most of the time the software that ran on one computer type would not run on another type. This led to specialized user groups that supported one particular brand, or type, of computer. Sometimes the user group was organized around general “computing” and the members shared their knowledge about their own particular model while learning about someone else’s model and how they differed.

Back in these early days computers that were used by large corporations were extremely expensive and very large and hard to move. Most computers used by corporations were not what we call “personal” computers. These computers were usually shared by many people in the business and sometimes connected to other computers in the same company and only used inside of that company. If you were a “user” of this type of computer you may have looked for other “users” either inside the same company, or in the greater community, so that you could share knowledge and techniques, or “horror stories”, about your computers.

As computers became smaller and more portable they soon started being used by individuals for their own purposes and were not connected to the “company”. Or a small business might have some “personal computers” that would be used both in the business and by the individuals for more than one purpose. The personal computer may be used by the business during the day and then used for individual purposes after hours or overnight.

Not long after “computers” became more “personal”, and portable, the “home computer” users joined with the corporate and business users in these User Groups. People could now bring their own computers to the meeting and share it with the other members. The larger User Groups would have Special Interest Groups inside the greater group where members with similar equipment would gather and share.

The User Group would have a Newsletter where stories would be submitted by members and collections or special interests could be shared. The meetings would have a presentation, where a member or a special guest would give a talk and share. The meetings would have time for members to get together and share more person-to-person and show others what they have in their collection and how it works. Software, magazines, and books could be shared and traded (sometimes dubiously).

To share a “collection” would usually mean typing up a “list” of your equipment along with specifications and printing it to paper. This list could be copied or published in the newsletter, or the “bulletin board” on the wall of the meeting room. Pictures could be pasted into the list and photocopied and were usually of poor quality and in black ink on white paper. 

As personal computers became more powerful and software became more capable we started seeing color pages for the newsletters and lists of collections. Digital pictures taken with a personal digital camera could be imported into documents and printed out on color printers. Color photocopies could be made for distribution to the group or shared with other groups with similar interests in the local area, or across the country, by mail or package delivery services.

As the cost of computers started to come down, and average people could afford to buy them as either business tools or home entertainment devices, people started to connect them by regular telephone lines. At the same time large corporations used local networks and had special telephone lines that would connect their networks across the country or the world. As these telephone connections became reliable people started to use them to communicate and share the same type of information they were sharing at their local User Groups. 

At this point the User Groups started to move “on-line” where they could have a farther reach. Sometimes a larger group would have both a local presence and a regional or national “on-line” group. These online groups would often meet on “Bulletin Boards” (or BBS’s) or through on-line Special Interest Groups sponsored by large corporations through an “Information Service”.