296:, located in Silver Spring, MD was the backbone of The Source and supplied all of the networking, computing power and software development until the sale of The Source to The Reader's Digest Association. Robert Ryan was the President and CEO of Dialcom for fifteen years and concurrently served as the founding President of The Source and remained in that role for three years and then decided to return full-time to Dialcom. Having secured publishing rights and put in place the necessary software, the system was announced at
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349: (equivalent to $ 23 in 2023) per hour in 1984 was approximately twice the federal minimum hourly wage in this same time period, placing the ability to access data with a personal computer in the hands of businesses and wealthy households only. Just as the expense of books gave rise to the library, the advent of data services provided by school and public library computers was a natural progression during this period in history.
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The Source provided news sources, weather, stock quotations, a shopping service, electronic mail, a chat system, various databases, online text of magazines, and airline schedules. It also had a newsgroup-like facility known as PARTICIPATE (or PARTI), which was developed by
Participation Systems of
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As the microcomputer boom continued, subscriptions reached a peak of 80,000 members, but later fell back (compared to 500,000 at CompuServe by 1989). During much of its existence The Source charged a start-up fee of about $ 100 and hourly usage rates on the order of $ 10 per hour. In 1984, the
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service. For service at 1200 bits per second there was a $ 5.00 per hour surcharge during weekday hours, and a $ 3.00 per hour surcharge at all other times. To place these costs for data services into an historical context, The Source's base nighttime and weekend rate of
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declared it to be "the start of the information age." Prices were initially US$ 100 for a subscription, then $ 2.75 per hour off-peak. However, the project had already run up large debts, and soon began running out of money. Taub sold an 80% controlling stake to
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registration fee was $ 49.95, and The Source charged $ 20.75 per hour between 7:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and $ 7.75 per hour on nights, weekends and holidays for 300
328:) this facility became an expensive and under-used overhead to maintain. Losses continued to mount, and chief executives came and went. Rumors abounded of an impending sale, but eventually
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Winchester, Massachusetts. PARTICIPATE provided what it called "many to many" communications, or computer conferencing, and hosted "Electures" on The Source, such as
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piggy-backed onto FM radio signals. Instead, the two hit on the idea of an "information utility," using cheap overnight excess capacity in
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Reader's Digest had high expectations for The Source, and established for the company its own purpose-built installation of
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to keep the company afloat. Von
Meister initiated legal action, and received a $ 1 million pay-off. He went on to found
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Originally, accounts on The Source were sold via retail packages which included manuals along with access information.
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in McLean, Virginia. However, subscriber numbers were slow to build, and (unlike the leaner set-up at rival
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and discontinued sometime thereafter. The Source's headquarters were located at 1616 Anderson Road,
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It's not hardware. It's not software. But it can take your personal computer anywhere in the world.
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and data networks to make online information available to dial-up subscribers.
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The Source was in operation from 1978 to 1989, when it was purchased by rival
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of postage stamps. Initially the idea was to transmit email using an unused
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On the Way to the Web: The Secret
History of the Internet and Its Founders
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Episode 5, demonstrated The Source and interviewed some of its employees
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The Source was founded in 1978 as
Digital Broadcasting Corporation by
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in June 1979. At a launch in New York the following month,
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David
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422:"The Era of Fragmentation, Part 1: Load Factor"
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503:Article on The Source at The Online Timeline
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560:Products and services discontinued in 1989
332:put up $ 5 million in 1983 in return for
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545:Technology companies established in 1979
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479:: CS1 maint: location (
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508:The Source Keeps Trying
452:. Chapter 4: O'Reilly.
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463:. Retrieved
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429:. Retrieved
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399:. Retrieved
396:"The Source"
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302:Isaac Asimov
294:Dialcom Inc.
278:Jack R. Taub
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198:Headquarters
190:Acquired by
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49:Please help
44:verification
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209:Area served
136:Native name
107:August 2024
540:CompuServe
534:Categories
372:References
366:text-based
326:CompuServe
286:subcarrier
258:CompuServe
238:The Source
223:CompuServe
192:CompuServe
130:The Source
77:newspapers
513:InfoWorld
475:cite book
264:, 22102.
347:US$ 7.75
153:Industry
465:30 July
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362:dial-up
268:History
179:Defunct
169:Founder
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148:Private
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187:Fate
182:1989
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70:news
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