Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 08:16:23 -0700
From: Russ Dale 
To: jason@textfiles.com
Subject: APSNET BBS

Hello Jason.  I am revisiting my old BBS days and thought I would send
along the history of Aurora Colorado's APSNET BBS (303-693-6737).  I
wrote the piece for an internal newsletter for the Aurora Public
Schools back in 2003.  APSNET is already on the CODEN 303 BBS list @
textfiles.com and should be included.  Thanks.  I am also working on a
narrative history for my BBS' Vision of Anarchy and The Bottomless
Slurpee.  I will send that when it is complete.  Have a great New
Year.  --Russ Dale, www.radhole.com

The History of APSNET (BBS)

The BBS known as APSNET (Aurora Public Schools Net) was the creation
of Glenn Blanco, Andy Yuan and Gary Sleap.  It was a Master's Degree
project that came online in the fall of 1985.  The BBS (Bulletin Board
Service) came online at Columbia Middle School in Aurora.  The
equipment used was an Apple IIe with a 20-megabyte hard drive.  It
used the GBBS Pro software package, which was the standard for Apple
BBS software in the 1980s.  APSNET was named by David Ladek, then an
8th grade student at Columbia.

APSNET was online from the fall of 1985 until the fall of 1994.  In
its ten-year history, the BBS, with only one phone line (303-693-6737)
was averaging over 40 calls per day and well over one thousand calls
per month.  After 10 years, the final log of calls was well over one
hundred thousand.  During APSNET's tenure, thousands of users
logged-in from all over the state of Colorado.  APSNET even received
long distance contact from a former user who was in the armed forces
serving in Germany.  APSNET was responsible for at least one marriage.
 Sysops received thanks from a user who met his partner while
exchanging e-mail on the system.

APSNET featured electronic mail, bulletin board posting, online USA
Today News Service and a full menu of online games and simulations as
well as educational downloads.  The APSNET BBS was the first
electronic mail service for the Aurora Public Schools.  Most of the
users of APSNET were students from schools around the Denver Metro
area.  Several teachers used the service on a regular basis.

APSNET began with a baud rate of 500 bps in 1985 and progressed
through 1200, 2400 and then 9600 bps in 1988.  It was recognized as
"Bulletin Board Service of the Month" in April of 1988 by the Colorado
Apple Computer Users Group.  Schools in APS, Denver Public, Cherry
Creek and Douglas County used the service as a training model in
middle and high school telecommunications classes.  APSNET inspired
the formation of other school Bulletin Board Systems such as the
Gatekeeper BBS at Gateway High School

APSNET endured as a successful BBS because of direct support for the
Aurora Public Schools.  The district provided the phone line and the
equipment and software.   Most importantly, the district kept the
system free and open for all interested persons using the system.  An
eighty-megabyte hard drive was purchased in 1989 increasing the size
and speed of the system.

In the early 1990s, because of the oncoming use of the internet and
the increased demand for communication by computer, APSNET became
quickly out of date.  In its ten-year history, APSNET became one of
the most utilized and popular systems in the Denver Metro area.  Even
to this day, system sysops still receive thanks via electronic mail
from former users.  In the late 1990s the name APSNET was revitalized
to become the name of the Local Area Network (LAN) of the Aurora
Public Schools. 

.....article by Russ Dale, Denver, Colorado, January 2003