Page 170 - DLIS408_INFORMATION_TECHNOLOGY-APPLICATIONSL SCIENCES

Unit 14: Web Portal

FidoNet is still in use today, though in a much smaller form, and many Echomail groups are still Notes
shared with Usenet via FidoNet to Usenet gateways. Widespread abuse of Usenet with spam and
pornography has led to many of these FidoNet gateways to cease operation completely.

Shareware and Freeware
Much of the “Shareware ” movement was started via user distribution of software through BBSes.
A notable example was Phil Katz’s PKARC (and later PKZIP, using the same “.zip” algorithm that
WinZip and other popular archivers now use); also other concepts of software distribution like
freeware, postcardware like JPEGview and donationware like Red Ryder for the Macintosh first
appeared on BBS sites. Doom from id Software and many Apogee games were distributed as
shareware. The Internet has largely erased the distinction of shareware - most users now download
the software directly from the developer’s website rather than receiving it from another BBS user
‘sharing’ it. Today shareware is commonly used to mean electronically-distributed software from a
small developer.
Many commercial BBS software companies that continue to support their old BBS software products
switched to the shareware model or made it entirely free. Some companies were able to make the
move to the Internet and provide commercial products with BBS capabilities.

Features

A classic BBS had:
a computer
one or more modems
one or more phone lines
a BBS software package
a sysop-system operator
a user community
The BBS software usually provides:
menu Systems
one or more message bases
file areas
sysOp side, live viewing of all caller activity
voting-opinion booths
statistics on message posters, top uploaders / downloaders
online games (usually single player or only a single active player at a given time)
a doorway to third-party online games
usage auditing capabilities
multi-user chat (only possible on multi-line BBSes)
internet email (more common in later Internet-connected BBSes)
networked message boards
most modern BBSes allow telnet access over the Internet using a telnet server and a virtual
FOSSIL driver.
a “yell for SysOp” (The original chat, before multi-line systems) caller side menu item that
sounded an audible alarm to the SysOp. If chosen, the SysOp could then initiate a text-to-text
chat with the caller; similar to what commercial websites have used to sell and support
products.

14.6 Computer Conference and Virtual Seminar

Computer conferencing technology encompasses a broad class of software and hardware tools
that facilitate real-time (or nearly so) interactions over computer networks, and in particular text-
based chat programs

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 165