I have to respectfully disagree. This is an obituary for a person who has died, which is not a complete history of his life. The articles are rather lengthy, for an obituary in a major newspaper where space is limited. I think the author did do some rather deep investigation. He did talk to Ward Christiansen‘s brother for remembrances and information.
Sent from my iPhone > On Oct 23, 2024, at 13:09, Henry Bent via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > On Wed, 23 Oct 2024 at 16:00, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> > wrote: > >>> On Wed, 23 Oct 2024, Robert Feldman via cctalk wrote: >>> >>> Ward Christensen, Early Visionary of Social Media, Dies at 78 >>> >>> >> https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/21/technology/ward-christensen-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.UU4.nswM.540OUXuySX84&smid=url-share >> >> Thank you for sharing that. >> >> >> The author, presumably a heavy Reddit, TikTok and Facebook user, seemed to >> have never heard about existence of computers before internet, nor about >> any computer to computer connections other than internet. He does not >> seem to know about anything except CBBS,and that solely because it >> "resembles Facebook". >> > > I cannot help but agree. This is a piece written by someone who is clearly > unfamiliar with any sort of computer networking before the '90s, and they > were obviously not willing to do any sort of research into contemporary (in > the '70s) computer culture either from a business or hobbyist perspective. > I suppose that I might have expected something more of a very high profile > newspaper, but at the same time I'm sure this is a "drive-by" piece for the > author - checks all the boxes, fulfills all of the requirements that might > be asked of the dilettante readership, and it's on to the next surface > level treatment of someone who probably made a real impact. > > -Henry
