Community Memory

[2] Once the system became available, the users demonstrated that it was a general communications medium that could be used for art, literature, journalism, commerce, and social chatter.

[3] This group of computer savvy friends and partners wanted to create a simple system that could function as a source of community information.

In his book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, Steven Levy described how the founders of Community Memory began the organization.

The first terminal was a Teletype Model 33 connected to the SDS 940 computer by telephone, using a 10 character per second acoustic coupled modem.

The Teletype machine was noisy, so it was encased in a cardboard box, with a transparent plastic top so what was being printed out could be seen, and with holes for one's hands while typing.

In other terminal locations, users sought out complete strangers to assemble car pools, organize study groups, find chess partners, or even pass tips on good restaurants.

[2] The original Berkeley Whole Earth Access Store on Shattuck Avenue got the Leopold's Records Teletype Model 33 ASR.

[7][8][9] [12] When CRT-based terminals became more cheaply available one was set up at the original Berkeley Whole Earth Access Store[13] and another at the Mission Public Library in San Francisco.

It was written in QSPL and ran on an SDS 940, an early timesharing system the size of eight refrigerators, originally used by Douglas Engelbart in The Mother of All Demos, which had been donated to Resource One for community use.