Before Facebook, the Late Ward Christensen Booted Up the First Social Network
SMRTR summary
Ward Christensen, who recently passed away at 78, co-created the first Bulletin Board System (BBS) in the 1970s, enabling ordinary people to connect online for free. His invention of the XMODEM file transfer protocol also laid the groundwork for modern file sharing, inspiring shareware and freeware distribution methods still used today.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to The New Stack.
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