''Boardwatch Magazine'', informally known as ''Boardwatch'', was initially published and edited by Jack Rickard. Founded in 1987, it began as a publication for the online

Bulletin Board System A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...

s of the 1980s and 1990s and ultimately evolved into a trade magazine for the

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

(ISP) industry in the late 1990s. The magazine was based in

Lakewood, Colorado The City of Lakewood is the home rule municipality that is the most populous municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 155,984 at the 2020 U.S. Census making Lakewood the fifth most populous city in Col ...

, and was published monthly. The magazine included advertisements for BBSes, BBS software and hardware, and editorials about the BBS

scene Scene (from Greek σκηνή ''skēnḗ'') may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Scene (subculture), a youth subculture from the early 2000s characterized by a distinct music and style. Groups and performers * The Scene who reco ...

. The founder and original editor of ''Boardwatch'' was Jack Rickard, who wrote editorials about many of the ISP industry's major players. ''Boardwatch'' spawned an ISP industry tradeshow, ISPcon, and published a yearly ''Directory of Internet Service Providers''. In 1998, Rickard sold a majority interest in ''Boardwatch'' and its related products to an East Coast multimedia company, which was then acquired by

Penton Media Penton was an information services and marketing company. The company's three largest revenue streams came from events, digital and marketing services. Although Penton had a long history (see below) as a trade publisher, in 2015 it reported that ...

in 1999 and moved to another ventures, notably EVTV, an online/video magazine of electric car conversions. In 2000, the ''Boardwatch Magazine'' staff published a bi-monthly magazine called ''CLEC Magazine'' for competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), small telecom startups that used competitive FCC rulings to resell

Baby Bell The Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC) are the result of '' United States v. AT&T'', the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust suit against the former American Telephone & Telegraph Company (later known as AT&T Corp.). On January 8, 1 ...

communication infrastructure. The magazine's March–April 2000 issue included a state-by-state CLEC listing similar to the ISP directory ''Boardwatch'' published. Penton produced a CLECexpo trade show in conjunction with the magazine. Penton also produced one ASPcon trade show for application service providers (ASPs), the forerunners to today's infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers like

Salesforce.com Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...

and cloud computing and storage companies. Penton Media launched ISPworld, an Internet portal website for ISPs, in 2001. The magazine ceased publication in 2002 and its assets were later purchased by online telecom publication Light Reading. ISPcon continued until the last event in November 2008.

Writers and staff

* Jack Rickard (publisher, 1987—1999) * David Hakala (editor at fault, 1991—1995) * Steve Clark (editor in chief, 1997) * Bill McCarthy (managing editor, editor in chief, 1997—2001) * Todd Erickson (associate editor, managing editor, 1997—2002) * David Kopf (editorial director, 2001—2002) * Steve Stroh (freelance writer and columnist) *

John C. Dvorak John C. Dvorak (; born 1952) is an American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a regular columnist in a variety of magazines. He was vice president of Mevio ...

(freelance writer and columnist) * Jeffrey Carl (freelance writer and columnist) * Christopher Knight (freelance writer and columnist)(author) * Bob Rankin (freelance writer and columnist)(author) * Gary Funk (technical director, 1991—1999) * Jason Remillard (freelance writer) * Brett Glass (cybersecurity columnist)

References

* * {{BBS Business magazines published in the United States Monthly magazines published in the United States Bulletin board systems Defunct computer magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1987 Magazines disestablished in 2002 Magazines published in Colorado Mass media in Lakewood, Colorado Professional and trade magazines