[Obituary] Ward Christensen, co-inventor of bulletin board system 'BBS', dies at age 78
Ward Christensen, co-developer of the Bulletin Board System (BBS), a system that allows users to post, read, and comment on articles on the Internet, was found dead at his home on October 11, 2024. He was 78 years old.
Ward Christensen, BBS inventor and architect of our online age, dies at age 78
Born in 1945, Christensen began working at IBM in 1968, and in the 1970s acquired his own computer and taught himself programming and computer science. In 1977, in order to develop a way to share programs with others, Christensen invented XMODEM, a binary transfer protocol that splits binary files into packets and distributes them over analog telephone lines. Christensen implemented XMODEM in the MODEM.ASM terminal program.
After the success of XMODEM, Christensen and
In 1978, a record-breaking snowstorm hit the northern United States, disrupting the transportation network, making it impossible for Christensen and Seuss to meet. This forced the two to put their ideas into practice. So while they were unable to meet due to the snowstorm, Seuss developed the hardware, and Christensen developed the Computerized Bulletin Board System (CBBS) . And so, on February 16, 1978, the world's first electronic bulletin board system was born. The reason for the name Bulletin Board was that it was meant to be a bulletin board that supports local communities, such as those installed at universities and stores, where flyers and messages can be pinned freely.
Below is the CBBS machine that Christensen and Suess actually developed. Because Christensen and his team did not want to be thought of as 'hastily concocting,' they initially lied and said that it took four weeks to develop, but in fact it was developed in about two weeks.
At the time, it was necessary to dial into CBBS directly using a modem, and since the CBBS machine was connected to only one line, users had to take turns accessing it. However, after Christensen made the specifications of the CBBS system public, the system was highly praised and had a major influence on later electronic bulletin board systems. It seems that Christensen and Seuss also participated in posting on CBBS by taking advantage of the gaps in user access.
Seuss, who co-founded BBS with Christensen, passed away in 2019.
[Obituary] Randy Seuss, creator of online bulletin boards, passes away - GIGAZINE
The news of Christensen's death was announced by technologist Lauren Weinstein. According to the IT news site Ars Technica, Christensen was found dead at his home in Illinois after a friend, worried about him having lost contact with her, called the police.
Jason Scott, who wrote a documentary about the birth of BBS, recalled his close interview with Christensen and said, 'Mr. Christensen was a very quiet, personable, gentle man, like a quiet caretaker of a garden.' He added that humility, openness and a spirit of sharing were the important legacies that Christensen left behind.
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