The QuantumLink Serial is a work of episodic online fiction by the American writer
Tracy Reed. It is considered the first such project ever.
The series ran from 1988 to 1989.
It was also known as the ''PC-Link Serial'' and the ''AppleLink Serial'' before all three services were unified when
Quantum
In physics, a quantum (plural quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantizat ...
changed its name to
AOL
AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc ...
. ''The QuantumLink Serial'' was included in the price of a monthly subscription to AOL.
''The QuantumLink Serial'' was played out in online chat rooms, emails and traditional narrative. After each week's chapter was published on each of the three AOL online services (
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
,
PC and
Apple II
The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-mo ...
/
Macintosh
The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...
), users wrote to author Reed suggesting how they could be part of the story. Each week Reed chose one of a handful of users on each of the three services and wrote them into the narrative, depicting how they interacted with the story through chat rooms, emails etc. Reed altered story lines to reflect the readers' input to the characters, as reflected in their unique custom-written "guest star appearances."
Reed began the story with a series of sample chapters, then pitched the project to AOL founder
Steve Case
Stephen McConnell Case (born August 21, 1958) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist best known as the former chief executive officer and chairman of America Online (AOL). Case joined AOL's predecessor company, Quantum Compute ...
and producer
Kathi McHugh. Case bought the project immediately, and within three months ''The Serial'' was the highest-rated text segment of AOL (excluding chat rooms and message boards).
The story ran for one year, when the death of Reed's father led to a hiatus for the writer. Both Reed and AOL turned to other projects, and the series was not re-instituted.
The concept was brought back on line in 1995 when ''
The Spot'' by
Scott Zakarin debuted as an ad-supported site, adding photos and video to the original ''QuantumLink Serial'' model. It was highly successful and ran through 1997.
References
American drama web series
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