I went to a conference about online communications a couple of weeks ago and ended up having a chat about computer forums that made me think back over all the various methods of e-communications I've used over the years.

***Read no further if you want to avoid a bunch of geeky stuff that's probably of no interest to anyone but me***

I suppose I started out by using dial-up email systems like Juno and local bulletin boards like Stargate BBS and The Cove BBS when I was living in Huntington in the mid-90s. It's weird to think back on those boards now with their FidoNet email systems, their ASCII art and games like Legend of the Red Dragonwhen things have advanced so far. Around that time I was also using Sierra Online's 'Sierra Network' (TSN), which later became the 'ImagiNation Network' (INN). INN allowed me to make friends with and play online games against opponents all over the country which provided endless fun until they started added an hourly surcharge to their dial-up service that made it far too expensive.

It was after INN became too expensive and I had seen how interesting things like Internet Relay Chat (IRC) were that we decided to get the net. Our first ISP was a little company called Newwave.net that's been gone for a number of years now. Newwave not only provided internet access, but also storage space for subscribers to create their own web pages. Of course, I had to try it out and this resulted in my very first webpage. Newwave also provided my first access to the Usenet and I frequented quite a few newsgroups centred on a variety of different subjects ranging from Douglas Adams to Genesis.

I also started using a lot of chat programs at that time, regularly signing in to ICQ, AIM and MSN in fairly equal measure. My favourite for a long time, though, was ICQ and I made a number of friends by just randomly chatting to people.

In late 1998 I moved to Lancaster University in England for a year and was cut off from what, to me, was normality. However, I soon found that the university had its own BBS, known as LUBBS, and I started to use it regularly to meet other people around the campus. One of those people, fortunately, was Allie who I would marry five years later. It was also at Lancaster that I set up my first webmail account back when Hotmail was just starting out and I'm pleased to say that I've kept that account spam free and am still using it as my primary account to this day. :o)

When I came back from Lancaster things pretty much reverted to the way they had been before I left, with the small exception that I was at Ohio State and had broadband which sped everything up. And I had a new webpage on which I kept what can only be thought of as the precursor to this blog (see About Me) from early 2000 to late 2001.

Things have moved on at a very fast pace since. I've used a number of internet forums in the meantime and I've kept using MSN to a degree as I have our webcam hooked up to it and I'm a long way from home, but... For the largest part most of what I've just talked about it is in the past. These days if I'm not using Facebook (or MySpace to a lesser extent) to communicate I'll be posting on this blog or using good old email.

And even though I've backed away from online communications a little, I'm still really interested to see what's to come. Google recently introduced Lively which looks interesting. It's a bit like Second Life in that it's a social environment where you communicate with others via 3-D avatars, but unlike SL it's completely browser based and completely free. That represents real potential in my mind, especially as it's being developed by Google. They still have some pretty major bugs to work out, but it would be really interesting if - with time and effort - the Web went in the sort of direction that Tad Williams' 'Otherland' books were pointing with people regularly interacting and shopping in 3-D environments as a matter of course. And I can see Google having the clout to take it that way, picking up where Microsoft seems to have left off with real software innovation. :oD

Right. I guess I'll wrap this up now.... But not without leaving you with a link to a couple of slideshows from the conference that started this all off; both with pictures of me. The first one has us holding up signs saying what we think is important in getting people to engage with you online. And the second is an overview of the day with at least one less than flattering photo of me. :oD