Ward Christensen: Pioneer of Online Bulletin Boards
Ward Christensen, a renowned computer scientist credited with the creation of the first online bulletin board system, passed away on October 11 at his residence in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. He was 78 years old. His brother, Donald, reported that the cause of death was a heart attack.
In the summer of 1975, while serving as an engineer at an IBM office in Chicago, Mr. Christensen became a member of a home computer club known as the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists’ Exchange, or CACHE. It was through this club that he met fellow enthusiast Randy Suess. A few years later, the duo began to explore the idea of developing a system capable of transmitting information between computers via telephone lines.
On January 16, 1978, a massive blizzard struck Chicago, burying the city under 40 inches of snow and leaving Mr. Christensen stranded at home in the suburbs. Seizing the opportunity, he called Mr. Suess with a suggestion: why not use this time to start building their messaging system? Although Mr. Christensen contemplated involving other club members for additional support, Mr. Suess cautioned against it, arguing that too many contributors could hinder their progress.
- “Forget the club. It would just be management by committee,”
- Mr. Suess insisted, as Mr. Christensen recounted in a 2009 interview with The New York Times. “It’s just me and you. I will handle the hardware, and you will take care of the software.”
Utilizing a spare computer, some innovative software, and a groundbreaking device called a modem—capable of sending and receiving data over phone lines—they ingeniously assembled a machine that enabled club members to exchange information. With their home computers, users could remotely connect to this system and upload messages for others to read, including meeting announcements and proposals for new projects.
Mr. Christensen envisioned this innovative platform as a digital counterpart to the traditional bulletin boards found in grocery stores, where community members could post flyers to advertise local events or seek out services like babysitting. “I patterned the software after the cork-board-and-push-pins type of bulletin board,” he reflected a decade later, highlighting the simplicity and accessibility of their creation.
