''BBS: The Documentary'' (commonly referred to as ''BBS Documentary'') is a 3-disc, 8-episode documentary about the subculture born from the creation of the bulletin board system (BBS) filmed by computer historian

Jason Scott Jason Scott Sadofsky (born September 13, 1970), more commonly known as Jason Scott, is an American archivist, historian of technology, filmmaker, performer, and actor. Scott has been known by the online pseudonyms Sketch, SketchCow, The Slipped ...

textfiles.com textfiles.com is a website dedicated to preserving the digital documents that contain the history of the bulletin board system (BBS) world and various subcultures, and thus providing "a glimpse into the history of writers and artists bound by ...

. Production work began in July 2001 and completed in December 2004. The finished product began shipping in May 2005. Although the documentary was released under the Creative Commons Attribute-ShareAlike 2.0 License and later under 3.0, meaning that anyone can legally download it for free, the author has made it known that the downloadable version is only a fraction of the available material and recommends that individuals purchase the documentary DVDs.

Episodes

Disc 1: # Baud: the beginnings of the first BBSes, featuring

Ward Christensen Ward Christensen (born 1945 in West Bend, Wisconsin, United States) is the co-founder of the CBBS bulletin board, the first bulletin board system (BBS) ever brought online. Christensen, along with partner Randy Suess, members of the Chicago Area ...

and

Randy Suess Randy John Suess (January 27, 1945 – December 10, 2019) was the co-founder of the CBBS bulletin board, the first bulletin board system (BBS) ever brought online. Suess, along with partner Ward Christensen, whom he met when they were both members ...

# SysOps and

Users Ancient Egyptian roles * User (ancient Egyptian official), an ancient Egyptian nomarch (governor) of the Eighth Dynasty * Useramen, an ancient Egyptian vizier also called "User" Other uses * User (computing) A user is a person who ...

: experiences from those who used and operated BBSes, including B.W. Behling from ''

Ahoy! ''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, focusing on all Commodore color computers, but especially the Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 198 ...

'' magazine Disc 2: # Make it Pay: the BBS industry of the 1980s and 90s featuring Philip L. Becker, founder of eSoft # FidoNet: details the largest volunteer-run computer network in history # Artscene: the history of the ANSI Art Scene which thrived in the BBS world Disc 3: # HPAC ( Hacking

Phreaking Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a culture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. The term ''phreak'' is a ...

Anarchy Cracking): hear from the users of "underground" BBSes # No Carrier: the end of the dial-up BBS and its integration into the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

Compression Compression may refer to: Physical science *Compression (physics), size reduction due to forces *Compression member, a structural element such as a column *Compressibility, susceptibility to compression * Gas compression *Compression ratio, of a ...

: the story of the

PKWARE PKWARE, Inc. is an enterprise data protection software company that provides discovery, classification, masking and encryption solutions, along with data compression software, used by organizations in financial services, manufacturing, militar ...

/ SEA legal battle of the late 1980s Disc 3 also serves as a DVD-ROM which contains thousands of photographs from the 200 interviews recorded during the 4-year production of the film. All of the episodes are subtitled in English and include director's commentary tracks. The Artscene episode is the only one to include subtitles translated into

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. All discs include hidden

easter eggs Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tra ...

Reception

''BBS: The Documentary'' was well reviewed, mainly by publications within the technology space. ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

'' called it "a five-and-a-half-hour paean to the era when computers were named Stacy and Lisa, and tech loyalists fought bitter battles over the superiority of Ataris to Amigas". '' Film Threat'' called it a "truly fascinating documentary about an increasingly obscure and obsolete technology". ''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (sometimes PM or PopMech) is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do-it-yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation and transportation o ...

'' called it a "labor of love" and said it was "the sort of thing that not everyone can digest, but is utterly fascinating to those that can". Since its release, the film has been cited by multiple academic works on the topic of computing history and internet culture.

References

External links

* * *
BBS: The Documentary
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

{{Jason Scott 2005 films Bulletin board systems Hacking (computer security) American documentary films Creative Commons-licensed documentary films Phreaking Warez Documentary films about the Internet Films directed by Jason Scott Documentary films about fandom Films about technological impact Works about computer hacking 2005 documentary films