CompuServe, (in full, CompuServe Information Services, or CIS), was the first major commercial online service in the United States, dominating the field during the 1980s and remaining a major player through the mid-1990s when it was sidelined by the rise of information services who adopted pricing models based on monthly subscriptions rather than CompuServe's hourly rate approach. Foremost among these was America OnLine or AOL, which generated a substantial portion of its income from advertising revenues. Today the CompuServe Information Service operates as an Internet service provider (ISP), owned by AOL.

History

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CompuServe was founded in 1969 as Compu-Serv Network, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio as a subsidiary of Golden United Corporation. While Jeffrey Wilkins, the son-in-law of Golden United founder Harry Gard, is widely recognized as the first president of CompuServe, the initial president was actually Dr. John R. Goltz. Goltz and Wilkins were both graduate students in Electical Engineering at the University of Arizona. Other early employees were also recruited from the U of Ariz, including Sandy Trevor (inventor of the CompuServe CB Simulator chat system), Doug Chinnock, and Larry Shelley. Wilkins replaced Goltz as CEO within the first year of operation.

The objectives of the new company were two-fold: to provide in-house computer processing support to Golden United Life Insurance Co.; and to develop as an independent business in the computer time-sharing industry, by renting time on its PDP-10 mainframe computers outside business hours. It was spun off as a separate company in 1975, trading on the NASDAQ under the symbol CMPU.

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TechCrunch

Elevator Pitch Friday: Challenge Your Fellow Man
Henry Work Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:11:36 -0000
After missing a few weeks, Elevator Pitch Friday is back with a vengeance. This week's featured video comes to us from a self-funded, young male oriented, yet-to-launch startup called BeTheBetterMan.com, with the pitch delivered by founder Eric Mayville.
Some CrunchBase API Stats and Apps
Henry Work Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:58:44 -0000
Six weeks ago we launched an API for our technology database, CrunchBase. The idea was to give away lots of clean, structured data about the companies we cover, data that could be used to build new services and improve upon existing ones. Since then we've seen a number of impressive things built on top of the API. And the traffic has started to add up: between July 15th and August 15th we fulfilled nearly 800,000 API requests, compared to ~1.3m page views for the website itself. We now have over 15 projects hooked up to CrunchBase with many others on the way. Developers interested in using CrunchBase data for their own projects should check out the API documentation. Today we wanted to highlight a few of the more sophisticated product integrations to date.
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Jason Kincaid Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:30:18 -0000
A rumor is circulating that the iPhone may be finally making its way to China. The original source of the rumor is China Communications, which has cited a China Mobile insider as its source. According to the source, China Mobile will be offering the iPhone at a heavily subsidized discount in order to court the massive Chinese population, many of whom would have trouble affording an unsubsidized phone.
Ok Someone At Google Is Just Messing With My Head
Michael Arrington Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:29:48 -0000
A couple of days ago I posted an email that I received from Google letting me know that I wouldn't be able to attend a Google/Vanity Fair party at the Democratic National Convention that I never knew about and didn't ask to go to. Other people who also didn't know about the party received the same email. Today I get another email, also from Google, inviting me to attend the mirror party at the Republican Convention in Minneapolis next Thursday. Is this for real or are they just going to cancel on me again? Get out of my head, Google. I will not be fooled into RSVPing only to have you kick me out later. :-) Email is below:
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Mark Hendrickson Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:14:16 -0000
Blogger has announced a new "following" feature that enables members to list themselves as fans of other members' blogs. By following a set of blogs, your username and avatar will not only show up among other followers in a MyBlogLog-like gadget that can be placed in the sidebars of these blogs. You can also view the latest posts from the blogs you follow in a special feed reader on the Blogger dashboard.

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