On the Way to the Web

Michael A. Banks is the author of more than 40 books, among them several titles that deal with Internet topics, including The eBay Survival Guide; Web Psychos, Stalkers, and Pranksters; The Modem Reference; PC Confidential; and Welcome to CompuServe. He is coauthor of CROSLEY: The Story of Two Brothers and the Business Empire that Transformed the Nation (Clerisy, 2006), the biography of twentieth-century industrialist/entrepreneur and communications magnate Powel Crosley, Jr. (This book made the New York Times extended bestseller list, the Wall Street Journal hardcover business book bestseller list, and the Business Week bestseller list. Having sold 45,000 copies during its first three months of existence, it received a full-page writeup in the February 12, 2007, issue of Publishers Weekly.) He has written hundreds of magazine articles and served as a contributing editor and columnist for Computer Shopper, Windows, and other magazines. Banks has been online since 1979, when he caught his first glimpse of CompuServe. During the 1980s, he was involved in a number of Internet firsts, including online book promotion. He has helped maintain bulletin board systems, was a special interest group (SIG) manager on DELPHI for a number of years, and worked in a consulting capacity for CompuServe and The Source. He wrote one of the first guides to online services, The Modem Reference (Brady/Simon & Schuster), which introduced hundreds of thousands of users to modems and the online world. Because of his reputation as a modem and telecommunications expert, GEnie and BIX (Byte Information Exchange) created special online forums for Banks early blogs. He has also advised a number of businesses in the area of online marketing.

• Making Contact.-Online in the 80s.- Early entrepreneurs.- Timesharing and PSNs.- Compu-Serve and Comp-U-Card.- Wasted resources and personal computers.- The prefect business opportunity.- Design and beta-testing the first online service.- Hacker toys or consumer service?.- The Source.-The uncertain entrepreneur.- From liquor to consulting.- Recycling hardware and ideas.- Telephones and computers.- A wireless Internet.- Videotext, cable TV, and computers.- The off-the-shelf computer network.- Tariffs and information providers.- Backers.- Opening Day: 'This is the beginning of the Information Age!'.- Content and Competition.-Revenue issues. Playing games at 300 bps.- News.- The problem with online shopping.- Downloadable software.- Advertising and online presence.- Online gaming. Paying the bills.- New social networks.- Mainstreaming online.- In search of cheap connections.- Chatting: the killer app.- What it looked like.- Looking Backward.- How’d we get here?.- The Victorian Internet.- Hyperlinks in the 1950s.- ARPAnet.- Packet-switching.- The knowledge industry moves in (Dow Jones, Knowledge Index, et al).- Corporate computing.- Modems and home computers.- Bulletin boards (BBSs).- 'What do we do next?' The noble idea.- E-mail and one-liners.- FTP, Gopher, and USENET.- More Entrepreneurs.- Modem millionaires.- The new competition (PLink, QLink, DELPHI, and more).- Content is king. Publishing, percentages, and partnerships.- Digressions: downloadable music, motives, and games.- Variations on a theme: Cable TV and phone nets, videogame consoles online (battle of the mediums).- Downloadable software and shareware.-Heavy Hitters and Growing Pains.- SIGs and Forums. FSBO and auctions.- Online casualties.- GEnie.- AOL.- Prodigy (How not to run an online service).-Advertising wars.- Viruses.- Pranked and turfed! The numbers increase.- Scammers and hackers move in.- Billing: Flat rate versus by-the-minute.- What it really cost.- Competition, Cooperation, and Coercion.-'My net’s better than yours!' E-mail interconnections.- Frames and graphics.- Front ends: value-added illusions.- Multi-tasking online.- Online intimidation, theft, and lawsuits.- Hackers and 'Free AOL.-' Million-dollar games.-Simulacrums and lies.- Doing Business Online.-Knowledge services.- Luxury goods.- Publishers and presence.- Experiments in retailing.- Advertising without advertising: sponsored Forums.- Growth: The Second Generation and Specialty Services.- Hosted services and private networks.- USA Today Sports Center.- The WELL.- BIX and WIX. BRS/After Dark. EasyNet.- Apple-Link. Promenade.- ZiffNet.- MCI Mail.- AT&T Net.- Legitimizing E-mail.- PornNet.- More casualties.- Linking to the Net.- E-mail links.- USENET Newsgroups.- Gopher.- FTP.- Modem taxes and other myths.- The plague of the Internet: Spam.- What spammers are really selling.- Social Evolution in Cyberspace.-'When everyone’s online ...' Online romance.- Intimate frauds.- Masquerades and identity theft.- Privacy fears and threats.- Encryption.- Compromising corporate secrets.- Chats and clubs.- Policing the online world.- Turning a buck.- Online crime.- Web psychos and stalkers.- Where the walls have ears (and memories).-The Hidden Network.- Getting the real story.- Bulletin boards behind the Iron Curtain.- Scooping CNN.- Earthquake! Data lines down: the story The Wall Street Journal missed. -Software pirates unbound. Pimps and predators. Pornography unlimited.- And now, the Web ...- Before the Web.- CompuServe buys The Source.- AOL buys CompuServe.- Mosaic-. Netscape. Bill Gates: The Web asa small phenomenon.- Catching up with Microsoft Internet Explorer.- GNN.- Web myths and fears.- Mainstreaming the Web.- The Corporate World Goes Online.- 'If it’s online, it’s free!' Web expectations and realities.- Dot com bust and boom.- The future.- Timeline.