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Bulletin board history and the case for open-source AI
A writer recalls how Ward Christensen and Randy Suess built CBBS after a 1978 Chicago blizzard, then draws a parallel between the communities around bulletin boards and today’s open-source AI efforts.
TLDR
In a September 2026 essay, a former BBS sysop recounts how Christensen and Suess built CBBS, which he says answered its first call on February 16, 1978. He describes how FidoNet later connected local boards and argues that open-source AI builders carry a similar spirit of community and resistance to control by large companies.
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