Chapter 2 · 1993–1994

Information is the new utility

The library and four partners build a community network, and 1,100 people sign up before it opens.

A free-net for Springfield

In May 1993 Columbia switched on COIN, a free community network that MOREnet's Bill Mitchell described as a "civic utility." Other Missouri cities wanted one, and a Cape Girardeau paper reported that Springfield was next in line.¹

The push came from the Springfield-Greene County Library. Its director, Annie Linnemeyer (later Annie Busch), first pictured a local bulletin board system: a place to put community information where people could reach it by modem. Most of the public had never heard of the Internet. Four partners joined the library as charter members: Springfield Public Schools, the City of Springfield, St. John's hospital, and RCET-Southwest. Between them they put up $53,000 to start the system.²

Busch later recalled that "tech people" had assured them the running costs would be close to nothing once it was built, because the general public didn't have home computers and wouldn't care. That turned out to be wrong on both counts.²

How it was built

ORION followed the free-net model that Cleveland had pioneered and the National Public Telecomputing Network spread across the country. It ran FreePort, the free-net software from Case Western Reserve University, on a Sun server that MOREnet operated in Columbia, under the host name ozarks.sgcl.lib.mo.us. Springfield callers dialed local numbers, and their sessions were carried up a 56K line to Columbia.³

That arrangement had quirks. Local content was written in Springfield but had to reach the server in Columbia, and at first it travelled on disk, so new material could take three or four days to appear. There were 15 modems on opening day.⁴

                      <<< ORION MAIN MENU >>>

  1 About ORION ..................... Registration, information, help desk
  2 Communications Center ........... E-mail, file transfer
  3 Education Center ................ K-12, college & universities
  4 Library Center .................. Catalogs, reference resources
  5 Health Care Information Center .. Reference, events, newsletters
  6 Government Information Center ... Local, state, federal
  7 Community Center ................ Organizations, agencies, clubs
  8 Public Forum Discussion Groups .. Special interest groups
  9 Electronic Newsstand ............ News, magazines
 10 Internet Resources .............. Archives of the information superhighway

 p = Previous Menu   x = Exit ORION   "go help" = extended help
 m = Main Menu       h = Help

 Your Choice ==>

Signing up

You didn't sign up online. You picked up an application at any library branch, and your userid and password came back in the mail. You needed a computer, a modem, a phone line, and terminal software that could pretend to be a VT-100. Set it to 8 data bits, no parity, one stop bit, at anything from 300 to 14,400 baud, and dial 864-6100 or 864-6685. Anyone could log in as guest to look around first.^4, 5

The library ran "Learn to use ORION" workshops at its branches through the spring. More than 70 people turned up to one at the Kickapoo Prairie branch before the system even opened.⁴

Opening day

ORION's grand opening was at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 18, 1994, at the Main Library. A representative of each charter member pressed a key, and the screen lit up with fireworks. By then about 1,100 people had already registered. For comparison, COIN in Columbia had about 6,000 users after a full year.⁴

"Information is the new utility."

The modems were jammed at peak evening hours almost immediately, and nine more were on order. The News-Leader even set up ORION mailboxes of its own and began taking letters to the editor by e-mail.⁴

The first summer

In July 1994 the board introduced Kevin Tharp as ORION's coordinator. He became the public face of ORION for the rest of its run. ORION already had 4,584 registered users. In the last week of June alone, 310 visitors logged in as guests, from 26 states and five countries.⁶

• $53,000Start-up money from the five charter members
• 15Modems on opening day
• 1,100Users registered before launch
• 4,584Users by July 1994