In the early 1990s, electronic bulletin boards were an important new communication tool. Groups of like-minded people created environments where they could chat about issues they considered important.
We surmised that it might be possible to create a new scholarly journal using bulletin board technology. Using a software called "Major Bulletin Board," we created a journal on a site dedicated to English and literature at the University of New Mexico.
Keep in mind that this research predates even Mosaic and the first availability of the WWW. Writing was still done in a VI editor, and e-mail was a brand new concept. The journal (including drawings) was produced in DOS and GW-Basic.
You accessed it by having your computer dial a number. The server answered via modem and, and after a few seconds of shaking hands and introducing themselves, our server made the site available to your computer. Clearly, this is not as elegant as current online journals, but the principles are the same.
Strengths of the idea
(1) The site was extremely inexpensive in a time when the cost of paper was going up by more than 200% per decade.
(2) The software was DOS-based, so we were able to use a simple, 286 server.
Weaknesses in the idea
(1) The site used DOS, which meant that graphics were extremely difficult to create and display.
(2) The site required that a remote user actually call our number to access the content. If we use a local number, the caller had to call long-distance. If we used an 800 number, it became very expensive for the caller but expensive for us.
(3) Navigation was cumbersome.
Conclusions
The technology did not support the development of a meaningful online journal.
Conclusions were presented in the 1993 conference of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association.