Boston Computer Society

At one point, it was the largest such group in the world, with regular user group meetings, many publications, permanent offices in Boston, and hosting major product announcements, including the East Coast release of the Apple Macintosh in 1984.

[citation needed] Among the early members were many well-known names in the computer industry, including Stewart Alsop II, Daniel S. Bricklin, Philip D. Estridge, Dan Fylstra, William H. Gates, Wayne Green, Mitchell Kapor, Cary Lu, Mike Markkula, Seymour Papert, Jon Shirley, Clive Sinclair, Benjamin M. Rosen, and Nigel Searle.

At its peak in the early 1990s, BCS supported more than 75 different user and special interest groups and held more than 150 monthly meetings.

Apple Computer Corp., Lotus Software and IBM made major product announcements at BCS meetings.

Much of the promotional and support role played by the organization became obsolete with the increasing sophistication of computer users and the growth of the Internet as an alternate source of information.

1977: Founded in February by then 13-year-old Jonathan Rotenberg[2] to be a resource for anyone to feel comfortable with computer technology, exchange information with fellow users, and learn from each other's successes and failures.

First BCS book published; a directory of local stores, consultants, and services.

VisiCalc introduced at BCS meeting by Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin.

Apple Boston created Applefest, the first conference dedicated to a single computer.

IBM introduces its new personal computer in November with the group starting in January 1983.

First regional chapter started in Providence, Rhode Island, under the auspices of the IBM Group.

The Macintosh computer is introduced at a BCS meeting and the Mac Group starts.

The book Things the Manual Never Told You, co-written by many BCS activists, is published by Addison Wesley.

NeXT introduces its computer at one of the largest meetings ever with almost 3,000 people lined up at Symphony Hall in Boston.

Declining membership and local economics force scaleback of BCS Center.

In the first meeting, the team welcomed Margaret Minsky of MIT Media Lab, who discussed her work with haptic interface, adding the sense of touch and movement to games, and Eric Howlett, who demonstrated a Virtual Reality headset, to a standing room only crowd of 250 in Lotus Development Corp's Kendall Square headquarters.

IBM Group moves office to larger space with classrooms, still in Newton.

Macintosh Group office moves from Somerville to Cambridge and their bulletin board logs its 500,000 call.

Seventh annual MegaMeeting, CompuFest, and a Computers & Social Change Conference.

[8] 1995: President and Board find it difficult to cut back staff and operation to meet declining membership and revenues.