Los Altos California
December 22nd, 1992

With a goal of establishing an electronic global nervous system, the OneNet Member ™ Network of Macintosh bulletin board systems is rapidly developing through the efforts of BBS administrators and users worldwide.

The OneNet Member Network is hooking up BBSes which use the graphical interface FirstClass™ groupware and telecommunications program developed by SoftArc Inc. of Canada, taking advantage of the software’s gatewaying (server-to-server communication) features.

“We want to grow a Macintosh-based distributed network system that provides low-cost, high-quality access to information, tools and community,” says OneNet Executive Director Scott Converse. “It’s about creating an online, virtual community of people connected to share knowledge and resources.”

The OneNet Member organization, running a large BBS in Los Altos, California, near Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, hopes to tie together not only individual BBSes, but  schools, hospitals, universities, governments, and other FirstClass networks and other networks that already exist or that are already forming.

Similar networks operate in other areas of the computer world: FidoNet for DOS-based systems; the InterNet for Unix-based systems.  OneNet is growing as a similar grassroots approach by creating an easy-to-use, Apple oriented online community that is distributed but connected.

“Our goal is to serve as one of the methods you can use to glue the various networks in the world together into The OneNet; our word for the ubiquitous global nervous system that’s slowly forming around low cost servers, networks, computers and the upcoming PDAs” says Converse.

OneNet Marketing Director John Clelland adds that “OneNet hopes to do for electronic information exchange what the Mac did for computing – that is, to make telecommunications fun and easy. The FirstClass software’s familiar Macintosh human interface makes this possible.”

The OneNet Member Network is currently establishing a regionalized hub backbone, as outlined below, to which any public or private FirstClass BBS can link and receive conferences – special interest forums that are gatewayed from the originating system in Los Altos, or published by any other OneNet Member BBS.  “All any FirstClass BBS has to do to join the OneNet, is contact us to establish which hub BBS they should gateway to.  The OneNet Member Network is set up to be easy to connect to and participate in…both from the end user’s, and the FirstClass BBS administrator’s standpoint”  points out Clelland.

Once a system becomes a OneNet Member™ network system, they can also publish their own, unique conferences back out into the OneNet.  Several of these conferences, usually special interest in nature, are re-published from their original system back out through the OneNet Member™ network for the thousands of users OneNet-wide to access. 

FirstClass™ provides conferences (forums) that can be both local to a specific system and “sharable” by replication over gateways . Other features of the software include electronic mail, real time chats, databases, and searching capabilities…all multi-taskable, unlike command line telecommunications software.

A core set of conferences is shared by all BBSes in the network, containing discussions of interest to most all Macintosh users. These include Macintosh hardware and software assistance, modem information, and FirstClass support from SoftArc Inc., the developers of the FirstClass communications system. 

Key logistical concerns are being addressed by directors of the originating system in Los Altos, with SoftArc also paying special attention. These include software enhancements to prevent looping of messages, growing pains that were experienced early on by other large networks.  “We are not trying to re-invent the wheel here. We are looking at the problems that other networks have had, and try to avoid the same mistakes when possible” points out Clelland.

Access to the network’s friendly graphic interface is just around the corner for PC owners, as SoftArc is currently developing a client-only package for Windows-based machines, while at this time all command line user’s can log on with the server BBS’s Command Line User Interface capabilities.

Global multipoint access to information with just a local phone call will become a reality as more BBSes join the network, which is already comprised of several dozen FirstClass systems worldwide.